Wild and Windy

 (Thursday) It's blowing a gale outside as I write this at 7a.m. I think even King Lear and his Fool would have had problems on that blasted heath, having to battle this wind. On BBC Breakfast's weather forecast they're saying in some parts of the country the wind speed is in excess of 85m.p.h.

(Friday) It's not as windy this morning, but still chilly.

Because I turned 70 in October I had to reapply for a new Driving Licence. It seemed that the easiest way to deal with this issue was to go to the D.V.L.A. (Driving Vehicle and Licence Agency) and apply there, which I did in September. I was expecting that it would arrive within days, but took into account the fact that they would be working with fewer staff in their office, due to the social distancing regulations for the pandemic. I still hadn't received it up until today, so I decided to try and sort out here it was, so I needed the reference number I was sent via an email and wrote it down, together with my Licence number and then had to find a number which I could ring to, hopefully, discover what was going on. This was extremely difficult to find on their website and when I rang it, I heard a recorded voice and then it ended which was of absolutely no help. I then discovered there was a 'chat bot' which seemed the only alternative to a phone call. It didn't take long to get an agent to respond and I explained what the problem was and it ended with being given another number to ring, which I did. Around a ten minute wait (and the music I had to listen really getting on my nerves.)and when I got through I again explained what my problem was and eventually got told that the licence had been posted out only days after I had applied. So, because I hadn't received the licence, I was informed that a fresh one would be mailed out within the next couple of days and if I didn't receive it to telephone again. I'm just worried that it could have been intercepted by criminals (no doubt someone would be looking out for what they believed would contain a driving licence) and use my data for fraudulent business, no doubt using my ID for illegal use, which is why I needed to get this issue sorted out.

(Saturday) Here I am at 3.20a.m., sitting with my MacBook on my lap, in my armchair in my lounge with the wind howling outside and not able to sleep. It just isn't going to happen so that explains why I'm writing this at the moment, even though there's not much to write about.

7.05a.m. It now not as windy, thankfully.

9.25a.m. I think I might have got the weather wrong. Been out with Alfie for the second time and it's actually as windy as ever. Perhaps it's because the side of the building my flat is, it's far more sheltered from the wind. It was bitterly cold and Alfie was keen to get back inside. The sun keeps on going in and out, as it disappears and reappears behind clouds.

Been into the Centre:MK, the main Milton Keynes shopping centre to meet up with my friend Nick who came over from Northampton by bus, where he lives. We were scheduled to meet at 11a.m. I had to take Alfie out before I left and then drove into the centre of Milton Keynes, parking in my usual car park near The Point. Very few cars so it was easy enough to park, probably because not all the shops in the centre are open. I put my face covering on because you have to wear one in the shopping centre and the shops within it. Big black crows everywhere as I walk through from the carpark. Puts me very much in mind of the Hitchcock film 'The Birds.' They're everywhere, on the ground, in the trees and perched on the roof of the bus shelters and other items of street furniture.

I walk towards Costa which is near Marks and Spencer to wait for Nick to arrive. There's nowhere to sit. All the seating has been removed within the shopping centre. The benches which are dotted around the place, which obviously couldn't be removed, gave been 'blocked' with boards informing you that the bench has been closed off because of social distancing. All right, but when you eventually need a rest from all the walking you have to do to get from one shop and the next, you do occasionally need to sit and rest. When Nick arrived we decided to walk to Starbucks to get coffee and something to eat. On arrival we had to queue as the store was busy, no doubt because it was a Saturday. I ordered a chocolate chip cookie latte and a ham and cheese toastie and we walked around to sit on benches outside near Marks and Spencers. A bit cold and windy but there was nowhere else to sit. A bit difficult to drink and eat walking along but that doesn't matter. We then went into Marks and Spencer, but we had to walk round to the entrance that came out opposite one of the malls. The escalators were not working but we soon realised that it was because non of the floors above were open and the men's department, which we wanted to visit, was on the ground floor and tucked away in a corner and out of the way (why are the men's departments in stores always hidden away and considerably smaller than those for women? It was like a jumble sale, no thought put into presentation and lots of items of clothing shoved on clothing racks. Not the usual Marks and Spencer way of doing things. Nick bought a shirt. I browsed but didn't see anything I liked in the sale.

Nick said he wanted to buy postage stamps, so we walked the length of the shopping centre and crossed over the road going towards the theatre and when we got to the post office we found there was a queue to get in. We had to wait around ten minutes before we could get inside. From there we walked back into the shopping centre to use the toilets and then I walked back to my car because by now all the walking had made me tired and we departed, me to drive home and Nick to remain and then catch his bus back to Northampton

(Monday) Rather cold and windy this morning, which I was not expecting when I took Alfie out earlier. this morning. I've managed to transcribe quite a few pages into word processing, using the speech-to-text function on the iPad. It certainly speeds up the process, although I have to check spelling and some words get mis-heard.

Blackberry-Picking and Sunshine

It's been a bright and sunny day today. Having seen blackberries on the brambles all along the Redway, as I walk with Carol to and from the Academy, it was too much for me to ignore them and so I went out this morning and picked quite a few. It looks, though, that others have had the same idea. Probably not as many as there might have been. And you can hardly blame people for getting the same idea as me as it's just a few yards from the back of our house onto the Redway and pick a bowlful of berries.

We have been searching for Carol's Driving Licence. The plastic card bit, which contains her driver's number. I have been on-line attempting to find a reasonable quote for our car insurance which runs out at the end of October. You have to put in your car registration number as it links to the D.V.L.C. database which brings up the make of car, model etc. I have my driving licence card in my wallet where I keep all my cards, loyalty cards such as Nectar and Tesco Clubcard, Debit cards etc. You also enter this driver number to show proof of your identity in order to set up your car insurance when you do this on-line with a number of insurance companies. So we have spent the past day searching the house for this card and eventually found it in the most unlikely of places but then we decided to just ring our current insurance company, Swinton, and decided to continue with our current company, but managing to get a better quote and avoid the hefty excess that was on the current policy. So, it's done and the policy will start at the end of October. The plastic card and the paperwork for Carol's driving licence was still stuck onto the 'Counterpart' paperwork section of the licence, as it had come in the post all those months ago and obviously had never been separated. They always seem to use the most sticky substance to attach these cards to either letters or 'counterpart' driving licences which are really difficult to remove. A gum-substance like chewing gum which then gets stuck to everything else it comes into contact with. Just annoying and unnecessary.

You no longer need to have the paper part of your driving licence. They have done away with this seemingly pointless bit of paper from the 8th June. I could never see the point of having the paper part of your driving licence as it was always getting lost. If the system was completely computerised it seemed a bit of a waste of time having it also on a paper document which was always going to be separated from the neat little picture card which you carried around in your wallet as I do with mine.

I walked to the shop in Galloways in Coffee Hall to take money out of the A.T.M. there this morning. Not only is walking good exercise, but it allows me to think positively about my writing and I've now got some more ideas to put into the various bits of work I'm working on. Well, if walking was good enough for Charles Dickens, who used to do his best thinking for his novels whilst walking, then it's good enough for me. it's so easy to take my iPod and listen to a podcast which I can download easily, but pondering plot-structure seems far more positive and useful. No end of squirrels chasing up and down the trees and on the grass. They come really close to me and I spent some time watching them. We seem to have quite a few of these cheeky, nimble little creatures around Milton Keynes. Also, I find many conkers under the horse chestnut trees along the side of the road and pick a handful up to take home. Do children still go 'conkering' as we used to as children? Do they still tie them onto bits of string and play the game of 'conkers' or have the 'health and safety' people stopped this game? Pity if they have.

I'm actually reading a Charles Dickens novel at the moment, 'Nicholas Nickleby.' I read it over 30 years ago, just before the famous Royal Shakespeare Company production was shown on Channel Four in  it's opening year. A good old-fashioned story that fair cracks along at a good lick and keeps you entertained with some of his most intriguing and preposterous comic creations. I'm sure that Victor Hugo must have read it, along with 'Oliver Twist' as there are some similarities with his 'Les Miserables' which I have also read.