A Touch of Light and Air

Sunday. 7.45 a.m. It's sunny and bright this morning. I don't have anything of importance to relate to here, so I'll end there until something strikes me as requiring responding in some way or other.

Monday. 7.00 a.m. So . . .  Virtually nothing happened! Now, there's a surprise. So (stop saying so.) here I am, on a relatively sunny Monday morning, having been out with Alfie a few minutes before the hour of six. Actually quite chilly. His nibs was asleep in his lovely, warm and snug bed and had to be woken up to go out. I think he's back in his bed asleep as I write this.

Tuesday. 11.15 a.m. Painting has now reached the corridor where my flat is situated. A workman painted the window frame of one of the ground floor flats going towards the SHO's office. It will be an improvement to have the paintwork around here covered in brighter paint than the brown which it all has at present. This will include the stairs leading up to the first-floor flats, including mine. I will have to be careful to not touch it before it dries when I leave and enter my flat, otherwise, I will have to find something to remove the paint. Also, make sure that Alfie doesn't get paint on himself. 

Wednesday. 6.25 a.m. So, I'm up early, taken Alfie out, done the washing up (actually did it last night. I can't stand piles of dirty pots sitting in the sink. I much prefer to do it all and have a tidy kitchen when I go in there in the morning or any time of day.

Boy, it was hot in the flat yesterday evening. My digital thermometer read 75º when I looked at around 6 p.m. yesterday. Does nobody around here ever think it might be a good idea to reduce the temperature? Before you ask, I have turned the thingy on the wall down which is supposed to control the radiators. But not doing a great deal of difference. Apart from anything else, it's a real waste and not environmentally good, but nobody will listen. I had to open the windows and have my fan on in my bedroom. 

I've been to Sainsbury's,  a good deal earlier than I normally go,  which I do weekly, as you will know if you read my blog on a regular basis. They are still moving stuff around and causing havoc. I was in the frozen food area and looking for pizza subs. They have been in the same place for I don't know how long and suddenly, they're not where I expected them to be, and I had to ask a somewhat grumpy member of staff, who didn't really appreciate my ironic sense of humour regarding this matter.

Having got back home, the flat was hotter than ever. I have opened the window and as I write this (10.00 a.m.) the digital thermometer reads 72º. 

2.55 p.m. There has been a lot of digging going on in the community garden. I can see clearly what's going on when I stand at the kitchen sink and see out of the window in front of me. It's been intriguing me for most of the day. Rather like one of those mysteries, murder television series, such as Father Brown or even the inestimable Sherlock Holmes. Seeing someone digging a hole, I do start to come up with my own ideas of what it's for. For burying a body? Or rather mundane, there's a pipe under there which needs repairing. Is it a leak? As the day goes on and I have to do more washing up, I can't help but see the thing unfold. My inquisitiveness gets the best of me. Then, a few minutes ago, I saw what the 'ole was for. A piece of sculpture. I use the term in its loosest sense. It might be a water feature. But as I watch in absolute intense bemusement, I can see no water or any plumbing which might be connected to this . . . thing. I have to admit it's hideous, whatever it is. Was it leftover in one of the garden centre's sales? Did Dobbies or Frosts donate it, or did offer a substantial discount on such an ugly garden feature? It does rather resemble a modern toilet. Now, I'm just being facetious and downright sarcastic, I know, but it really is that awful. I think it best to end this before I get into trouble. But did nobody think it was really appropriate or even have any sort of artistic integrity? Who knows. But it has given me a certain amount of amusement, wondering what on earth it represents. It doesn't represent anything. It can't do, because the look of it is so odd it can't represent anything known to man or beast. Even the sculptures of  Henry Moore, which were modernist in style and somewhat strange to the average observer, did represent SOMETHING. but this thing? Definitely not. Okay, okay, I give in. As they say, 'sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but the highest form of intelligence' so I will refrain from mentioning this 'thing' from now on. Unless something amazing happens and it turns into . . .  I don't know, but it would be fun if it did. That quote from the great Oscar Wilde, so if it was good enough for him, it's definitely good enough for me.

4.30 p.m. The mystery is revealed! The 'thing' in the community garden is a water feature. I had a glance out of the window just now and it has water flowing out of it. But it looks more than ever like a urinal. Sorry, but it does. Just as well I can't hear it trickling, or it would have the effect of making me want to run to the loo and have a wee. The thing is, without doubt, the ugliest thing I have probably ever seen, and that's the truth. 

Thursday. 2.30 a.m. The temperature in the flat at the moment is 60º. I can't believe it got so hot the other day. 

7.20 a.m. It's bright and sunny but actually quite chilly. Considering how hot it was a couple of days ago, there's quite a drop of around 10º, so you can see why I would notice the difference. Apparently, according to the weather forecast on BBC Breakfast, it's due to get colder.

I just had to mention, my bathroom and the non-appointment with Mears (the company who are responsible for the maintenance of Dexter House.) Did I mention that I had emailed a local councillor about the lack of action from Mears regarding my bathroom being upgraded? I don't think I have, but my email was passed to a Campbell Park Parish councillor, who emailed me yesterday asking me to send a photograph of the state of my bathroom and that Mears should set up an appointment to have my bathroom accessed with the intention of discovering what I would like done to the bathroom (i.e.: gold taps, sauna, jacuzzi etc. In your dreams, but it's worth a go I suppose.) So it would appear that my efforts will be paying off if it means they can nudge Mears into doing SOMETHING. so, watch this space for developments.

Fine and Sunny Weather

Having said in yesterday's post that it was getting chilly, today it's fine and sunny. Typical for this time of year when it can be chilly one moment and the next sunny and warm.

 Carol was due to have an appointment with Dr Saka at the Macmillan Unit this morning, but there was a telephone call from his secretary to say, because Dr Saka was on holiday they'd have to reschedule the appointment. It made sense really, because a week on Saturday Carol has another scan it it seemed more sense having the consultant's appointment after the results of the scan were available for him to look at rather than having the appointment before the scan. So, as we didn't have to go to the hospital we decided on a visit to Milton Keynes shopping centre. We parked in the multi-storey carpark near Debenhams. It is currently undergoing renovations so we couldn't park on the lower floor and had to drive to the top to park. The whole place is gradually looking spick and span with generous amounts of paint being used and the whole surface of each floor relaid. Much better as a result. We couldn't use the escalator to go down within Debenham's and had to use a lift. We were surprised how busy the whole place was, perhaps due to the weather being warmer or no doubt because it will be the last day of the school holidays. As we walked past several shops, notably Clark's shoe shop, many were heaving with parents and children being fitted out with new shoes or school uniforms ready for the new term which begins on Monday.

We walked as far as Middleton Hall, by which time we were ready for a refreshment break and went to Cafe Nero and we queued up to order lattes and chocolate slices. I was somewhat shocked by the attitude of the girl who served me. Scowling and not interested in what she was doing. Carol noticed so it wasn't just me. I don't think this girl was a good example of good customer care and if I'd been doing a secret shop I'd have mentioned it and she would have been disciplined by her manager. Miserable girl. It was more than obvious to me that she really would have rather been anywhere else but where she was at that precise moment. If that was the case she should let someone else do her job and at least concentrate on what she was doing.

We sat near a window so we could watch as people passed by in the shopping mall. The coffee wasn't by any means the best we'd had. Far too strong and not as good as what we'd had the other day in Frost's garden centre in Woburn Sands. By comparison their cafe was far better. I stood and watched as a member of their staff made us lattes. The girl who did this job was being very accurate with the way the lattes were being made as well as even cleaning the saucers and placing the rather nice design in the froth on the top of the lattes as well as wiping the cups and placing biscuits in the saucers as well as spoons. They have very well run restaurants and cafe's which are staffed by people who seem to take a great pride in their work, unlike the girl in that branch of Cafe Nero.

When we'd finished in Cafe Nero we walked back the opposite side of the shopping centre, visiting The Works to have a browse and then walking back towards Debenham's and the multi storey carpark.

Invasion of Flying Ants

Yesterday afternoon (Sunday) we had an invasion of flying ants in the lounge. It was Carol who noticed them, along the skirting board under the window and near where we store Alfie's toys in a basket next to the television unit. I can't think how they got in the house, but no doubt the recent warm weather has something to do with this invasion. It's supposed to happen annually when the queen ant of a colony sprouts wings ready to mate. They don't usually sting humans, but we weren't over-keen to find out one way or another and certainly didn't want them in the house. Carol doused the carpet with ant-killer powder, and we whisked Alfie out of the way into the kitchen, much to his dismay, but we weren't sure he wasn't likely to get bitten and didn't want him near the poison. They began to die as the poison took effect and I then used the vacuum cleaner to clear up the powder. Unfortunately Alfie's toys got covered in the powder, so the only solution was to put them in a black bin bag and put the whole lot out for the dustmen. We really didn't want him playing with them after they were doused in the ant killing powder. They were crawling along the skirting board and on the carpet. Panic over, we could then return to watching television.

Monday morning. I took out Alfie as usual for his walk. There were people in the children's playground area who had an alsatian which was not on a lead so I avoided that area and immediately put Alfie on his lead. I was concerned that the bigger dog might harm Alfie. He isn't scared of bigger dogs generally and always wants to make friends, but it's difficult to know whether this alsatian was going to be aggressive and wasn't keen to find out so to avoid at all costs seemed the best solution.

We drove over Woburn Abbey to drive through the park. The deer were not close to the road and having looked I could see them in the distance over towards the road leading to the Abbey. There is a sign up as you drive into the open park space which tells you the number of deer killed so far this year. It says 12. It seems crazy that drivers don't slow down to avoid the deer as they are large animals and do have a habit of wandering into the road, so how on earth do people manage to hit them and kill them? Surely not impossible to merely slow down, or are some drivers just too reckless when they drive through the park? We drove round the loop which we always take so as to make a return journey back through the park and then went to Wyevale Garden Centre at Woburn Sands to have a browse in The Works there as Carol wanted to buy glue sticks for her crafting. The Works always have a good range of not only books but also a wide range of other items such as for crafting and had Christmas stock in for those who make Christmas cards and decorations. Let's just say it's the first sign I've seen of Christmas, even though we're only in August.

Lots of children in the garden centre, because it's till the school holidays. Some very well behaved but  one or two screaming to get their own way. Some parents let their children get their own way and don't know how to discipline them. They don't know how to say 'no' when a child demands something. We avoided Frost's garden centre, which is the first garden centre you come to when driving from Woburn. I could see many cars in what must have been a carpark extension and we know from experience that they put on special events for children during the school holidays, such as a circus, so drove past to go to Wyevale instead.

We ended up in the café and had lattes and scones, jam and clotted cream. The scones were really fresh and were warm, straight from the oven. Almost like homemade. The latte was better than average and would seem to have a far higher coffee content than at most places we've been to.

We left Wyevale, heading back to Milton Keynes through Wavendon. There's lots of roadworks along this stretch of road and it looks as though they're building more houses on the piece of land between this road and the main road that leads out towards the M1, which is now lined by large warehouses, the biggest being for John Lewis. Very soon Wavendon will be totally engulfed by housing. The large roundabout which is on Staanding Way and which is the first roundabout you encounter as you come into Milton Keynes from the M1 has been totally transformed and expanded, with traffic lights on it which make it safer and easier to negotiate.

A Tropical Heatwave

I just have to sing the song 'Heatwave' from some musical or other, or 'Too Darn Hot' from perhaps the best-ever musical, 'Kiss Me Kate.' It's because we're enjoying a heatwave at the moment. I love it warm and sunny, but it's been far too hot. With a heart condition I have to be careful in sunshine. It can be quite dangerous. Likewise, Carol, with her health condition. Having been on chemotherapy for over six months too much sunshine can be just as dangerous for her as it can be for me. I don't want to complain about the warm weather. We don't get much decent weather as it is, and considering what we've had to go through during the past year.

It's been a really hot and sticky few nights. Even with the window open in the bedroom and an electric fan on at full blast, it's been rather difficult to sleep. Then you get extraneous sounds coming into the house, adding to further difficulties sleeping. It gets light early, the dawn chorus. Boy, can those little critters half sing? I don't think they sleep. A real racket. No wonder I wake up early in the summer months.

I've continued with the clearing of the brambles and other overgrown plantlife in our garden, such as it is. I did some more work on it early this morning, as it was over-cast at around 7.30. I was determined to get more done as a lot of the stuff I managed to grub out and cut back had gone in our Wheely bin and the rubbish is collected on a Wednesday morning. I had to bring it through the house as we don't have a side gate which would obviously make life easier. The space where the gate should be had to be blocked up when the fence was repaired and it would cost at least £150 to have a new gate put in. Our lovely landlord wouldn't spend out on having this done, I am sure. But it would make our lives easier if we could just push the bin round to the front of the house for collection by the Council workmen. I'm not sure whether they take this every week. I have a feeling it's only taken every fortnight because when I put it out a couple of weeks ago it was either forgotten or ignored by the Council workmen. I have no idea when it's supposed to be taken. But it was taken and emptied early this morning. Which means I can now fill it up again. With more garden waste.

I've been looking for new shoes. I went on line as I wanted something like a trainer but made of leather. Also, with substantial soles, so I don't feel gravel or whatever through them. On using Google I went on the Sports Direct site and found some Sketchers, a lightweight sort of shoe with a more substantial sole. When we went to Waterperry Gardens the other week, no sooner had we parked the car and were walking towards the entrance, across gravel, I could feel the gravel through the soles of my current pair of Adidas trainers. Not good. They are still in good condition. Since I was at school I have always kept shoes I own and wear clean. I use treatment to keep them waterproof and make sure they are polished or at least wiped clean. I don't suppose today's children have to worry about their shoes being cleaned like I did when I was at school. They should do. Having a sort of sense of personal pride should surely be instilled into the younger generation.

I digress. Never mind. Anyway, as I say, I found what I wanted on the Sports Direct website. I could have bought them through the website, but really wanted to try them on. Which you obviously can't do from a website. I could have bought them and tried them on, not liked them, for whatever reason and then had to send them back, which I didn't fancy doing. So on Monday we drove to the retail park at Bletchley and had a look at their vast selection. I found what I was looking for and then tried them on. A very helpful lady assistant got me the second shoe (a size 10 1/2, which I found to be slightly too large. I take a 10. When she came back with the size 10 pair I tried them on and they were perfect, so I decided to buy them, together with a shoe-care kit comprising special 'rain and stain' protector as well as instant cleaning spray.

We went to Frost's garden centre in Woburn Sands this morning. Carol had another scan this afternoon at the hospital and couldn't eat after 2 p.m. We had lattes and really fantastic scones, jam and cream. These scones are larger and far tastier than the average and are to be recommended. Also had a quick browse before we went home.

We decided to drive to the hospital for Carol's scan appointment. We could have walked, but, as it was so hot, it seemed a better idea to go in the car. On getting in the car, which had been standing on the drive all day in the full force of the sun, we discovered it to be extremely hot, rather like sitting in an oven (not that either of us has done such a thing.) I had an idea it wasn't as hot as the previous day, which was supposed to have been the hottest day this year, according to the weather forecast on BBC Breakfast this morning. Anyway, we drove round to the hospital and then had to park outside the scanning department which fortunately has several dedicated parking spaces for patients. I wasn't over-pleased that we had to park on a sloping piece of tarmac, so trusted that Carol had successfully applied the car's brakes, otherwise the car would have rolled forward and crashed through the scanning unit's glass facade. The unit was running approximately 20 minutes late. No reason given, but at least the staff on reception apologised. No doubt this was due to patients being bought in from the hospital wards to be scanned. Carol was soon taken off to be scanned and I was left to read the magazines in the waiting area. It was hot in the waiting area, but the staff closed the blinds and the place soon cooled down. About 45 minutes later Carol returned, the scan having been done, and she had to sit for 15 further minutes as she had a cannula in her arm. They put some sort of dye into the patient's arm (possibly radioactive? I don't know.) and eventually it was taken out by the nurse and we returned home, having had to make a somewhat difficult reverse out of the parking space outside the unit.

Another Stormy Night

Just when we thought we'd got over the previous night's thunder storm, we had an almost exact repeat of storms last night. The sky went a strange colour, with the sun sort of diffused a yellowish tint and then the rain began, with a couple of thunder claps which sounded like bombs being set off which almost made us jump out of our skins and Alfie started barking. We almost wandered whether anything had been hit, it was so loud, but nothing was, thankfully.  Then the rain fell in such intensity it was like someone turning on a power-shower, and it seemed to go on for an extremely long time. You could barely see across the garden when I peered out of the bedroom window. The thunder rolled around and we thought it had gone away, but about twenty minutes it all started up again, a sort of repeat of the earlier storm. In all the whole storm sequence seemed to go on for several hours, with the rain falling heavily. This morning I looked out of the kitchen window to see what sort of damage there was and the road outside was completely dry. I was expecting there to be large puddles, but nothing. Carol said that when she'd looked during the storm there was quite a torrent of water flowing past. At one point it rained so hard that we though the windows had blown open at the front of the house, especially in the bathroom, but it was just the rain rattling the glass. As I wrote this (at 1.35 p.m.) the sun is out, although it's not that warm, although it is quite clammy. We just hope we don't get a further bout of storms tonight.

Only a short blog post, but there's not much else to report, although we did drive to Frost's in Woburn Sands to have coffee. We got there really early and as a result the carpark was virtually empty.

Snow (Almost) Gone . . . And A Drive Out

We woke this morning to find out that the snow had almost all gone, apart from a few stray bits. What do they say? If there's a bit of snow left, then there'll be more soon to join it, so there is the possibility that we will get more before the winter is over. It is a good deal milder, so I turned the central heating down. The lounge does get warm, particularly if the sun comes out, which makes a real saving on the gas bill. These houses were designed to be warmed by natural means, with larger windows facing the sun and the windows on the opposite side of the house much smaller.

At 8.30 a.m. there was a weak sun shining. Which meats the remaining snow would soon dissolve. Carol was still asleep and I heard Alfie coming downstairs and wanting no doubt to be let out into the garden.

I'm still reading 'Keeping On, Keeping On', Alan Bennett's latest book. It's mostly his diary entries, covering 2005-12. He mentions Miss Shepherd, the elderly lady who lived in a clapped-out van parked in his driveway for 15 years, and who provided the inspiration for his play 'The Lady In The Van' and the film version of the same. There's nothing particularly interesting about his ramblings, mostly about his visits to various churches, National Trust properties and so on, but I love his sense of humour, very dry, and his mentions of the people he's met in various roles, for example, writers and actors. You can't read these books of his as if they're a novel. You can read several pages, all bits and pieces covering several days, none really connected in any way. There's no narrative thread, so it's the type of thing you can pick up on occasion, although some bits are more interesting than others.

We've been trying out the new Tassimo machine. It's a good deal more sophisticated than the Dulce Gusto machine. There is a wider range of drinks. It will make teas, and branded drinks, Cadbury's chocolate, Twining's and Costa. It has taken a while to fathom out how to work the machine, which Carol has christened Hannibal because it sounds a bit like the sounds the character, Hannibal Lecter, played by Anthony Hopkins, makes in 'The Silence of The Lambs.'

We drove down the A5 towards Stockgrove Country Park. It's been such a sunny and warm morning, after about a week of snow and ice, it was great to be able to get out of the house. We saw some patches of snow, but not enough to make things difficult to drive. We parked in the carpark and saw that the main path down to the lake was still covered in ice and snow, so we gave it a miss. We walked around and saw people sitting outside the café with their dogs. We didn't have Alfie with us. If we had, he'd have got heavily covered in mud and most likely would have ingratiated himself with the dogs as he has a habit of doing. It was surprising to see so many people about on a Monday morning. We didn't remain at Stockgrove, and left, which was annoying as we had to pay £3 for the privilege, even though we were there for such a short time. Carol wanted to take photos with her iPhone of the drifting snow along the road going back to the roundabout on the A5. Some really weird and wonderful shapes carved out of the snow at the side of the road. Drove over the roundabout towards Woburn. The centre of Woburn was like a ghost town, compared with a weekend., when it's usually heaving with tourists. A pretty village, but it's been over-commercialised. Drove through the park, although we didn't see much of the deer. Drivers not over-appreciative of me driving slowly to take  in the scenery. Why should they? Why bother to keep your speed to a decent level, particularly if it means avoiding any deer who happen to be in the middle of the road, as they have a habit of doing? No point obeying the rules, as usual. I drove straight through and out the other side and theynround towards Steppingley and Ampthill and then round towards Ridgmont and they made a detour back towards Woburn Sands as we wanted somewhere to have a bight for lunch. We went into Frost's at first. Parked well away from any other vehicles, as I don't want a repetition of what happened the last time we were in Frost's carpark. We went into the main body of the garden centre, which, as usual is beautifully organised, new displays of items to buy for Mothering Sunday. (I hate that we have to Americanise it to 'Mother's Day.) Why do they seem to think mothers want everything to be a hideous pink in colour? Flowers as well as boxes of chocolates and other gifts?

The restaurant is heaving with those of a 'certain age.' You can hardly find room to sit, if you were proposing eating. We go into another area as Carol wants to sit down. I go and have a look for a simple sandwich or baguette, but I can find nothing that fits the bill. Plenty of other options, but it's been made so up-market with rockett rather than plain old lettuce, or posh food on a platter rather than a plate, over-priced and certainly putting off a certain section of the population. As we can find nothing suitable, we decide to leave and drive over the road to Wyevale Garden Centre. Frost's have lost our custom.

This amuses me; a garden centre, making every available type of plant for sale. We walk into Wyevale and one of the first stalls (if that's what they call them) we come across is made up to look like a vegetable patch, but with obvious artificial veg appearing to grow in some earth and then, further in, a huge display of artificial flowers of every shape and variety, looking amazingly realistic. It just seems crazy that a garden centre, of all places, should sell such things as plastic flowers. Though, thinking about it, some of these would have been useful to me when I was working in stage management and I needed to find such things as flowers to be used as props in some of the plays I worked on, particularly as real flowers were considered to be bad luck by some actors. Just that a lot of theatrical folks are superstitious. No mention of a play by Shakespeare, better known as 'The Scottish Play' (Macbeth.) as it's considered to be bad luck.

In Wyevale we go into the restaurant. We order tomato and cheese toasties and have to wait some considerable length of time for them to arrive at our table because we're told they only have one operative griddle. When they arrive, they are very tasty. Also, we share a portion of chips. The place is busy, mostly mothers and toddlers and babies, who seem very well behaved, apart from one child who seems to like to make a noise about everything. It's good that these places do cater for children and babies. Also, I notice that Wyevale as well as Dobbie's are now dog-friendly. I see no reason whey they shouldn't, provided all dogs are well behaved.

Left Wyevale and drove back towards Milton Keynes. We had intended driving back up towards Chaffron Way, but when we got to the traffic lights to turn left towards Kingston where Tesco is, the road was blocked off. So, where we to go? No advance warning of this,  or for what reason, so diverted inside the housing estate. It was like driving in some sort of maze of roads, not clear where I was to go exactly, but eventually got on to main road back towards Chaffron Way.  So we'd had quite a pleasant morning, quite a circuitous drive, but well worth it in the end.

Later. It's as well we went out when we did. It's late afternoon as I write this, 4.50 or thereabouts. The weather has changed. It's now raining and there's water running down the road outside. The snow is more or less gone, although there is a small amount left in the back garden.

Outing and a 'Little Bump' with The Car

Carol was determined to get out of the house. I couldn't blame her, as she hasn't been out for quite some time, except to go for hospital appointments, such as to the Oncology Suite and doctor's visits. We had to go somewhere which wouldn't compromise Carol's health as she can't get infected because of being on chemotherapy, so it wasn't a good idea to go somewhere which would mean she was likely to catch something nasty from someone or other. We headed off down the A5 and could have gone to Dobbie's at Bletchley, but when we got to the roundabout we decided to go the opposite way and headed for Woburn Sands and either Frost's or Wyevale garden centres. Carol has been looking for a diary so she can keep a track of her appointments, one with a page for each day. I had been into the city centre this morning and didn't find a decent diary for her in any of the shops but got a calendar in The Works. Generally a good place to browse in for not just books but also calendars and a wide range of odds and ends. We went into Wyevale first and had a good browse amongst the different stores within the garden centre and went into The Works (for me, again, although a different branch to this morning) and we found the ideal diary for Carol. She then had a desire to have cake (as you do) so we had a look round but found nothing, not so much as a crumb, unfortunately. So we left and went to Frost's only a few hundred yards back towards the centre of Woburn Sands. Not much room to park the car, but we did manage to eventually find a place and then went into the food hall. We wanted custard, and we found some in the food-hall, but we then discovered that it cost over £3. I hadn't noticed, but Carol pointed the cost out to me before we got to the till. I decided to put it back on the shelf. We could easily find ready-made or at least custard powder and make our own if we visited another shop. We couldn't find cake of any description, going into the restaurant in the main building of the garden centre. At more than £3  slice, we decided it was somewhat over-priced. Probably very nice, but you could find a whole Victoria sponge for less than that elsewhere. At which point we decided to leave.

We got back to the car, got in and I began to reverse out. A difficult enough manoeuvre at the best of times. You have to be sharp as there are always people walking past as well as other cars reversing and turning. I moved extremely slowly and, unfortunately, seemed to hit the car behind. The driver shouted that I'd hit his car. He wasn't going to let me go without making a scene. I got out of the car and spoke to him. I apologised and he asked me if I wanted to pay 'in cash' or claim 'on your insurance.' No possibility that he'd made an error with his driving? He had his iPhone out and was taking pictures with it of the damage to the rear of his car. Hardly a scratch. Also, taking shots of the rear of our car. Thinking about it now, I think he may just have been taking photos of the registration number. Only a slight scratch, if even that. I gave him my phone number and my name. There was something a bit odd about all this. How come he had his mobile out so quickly and taking shots only mere seconds after the 'crash'? You could hardly call it that. I was moving extremely slowly. I didn't hear any sound when the car ran into the other car. Neither did Carol. The other thing was, his wife was quickly on the scene with a note pad and pencil, taking down my name and phone number. Handy if she had a notebook and pencil so readily to hand.  I would contact our insurance company, Swinton, and they would deal with the claim, if indeed there was a claim. The other man said that he'd ring round to get a quote to have his car repaired. It was hardly worth bothering, to be honest. If I had been driving at speed, it would have made a far bigger dent in his car. What I saw on his car was hardly a dent, more like a tiny scratch, if that. Why couldn't he just accept that it was a minor accident and drive away without making any fuss? I reckon he'll get a quote and then hike up the amount and pocket the difference. There are people 'out there' who are quite determined to make money out of insurance claims, even staging car accidents deliberately just so they can claim on either their insurance or the other driver's. I reckon that driver could easily 'ring round' for a quote and then hike it and get me to 'pay in cash,' regardless of the actual quote he would be given. All these things adding up to be rather suspicious. It makes me wonder how many innocent drivers he's tried this sort of scam on.

On the way home we stopped at the Co-op in Broughton. This is a newly-opened estate which is growing fast. It's really incredible how much Milton Keynes has grown in the little over ten years that I've lived here. Out at Crownhill, where we lived when we were first married in 2007, the open fields going out along Watling Street towards Stony Stratford are now developed into more housing estates. The road into Milton Keynes from Junction 13 of the M1 has been extensively developed as a duel carriage way and a whole expanse of warehouses has grown up, mostly belonging to Waitrose and John Lewis. Anyway, we managed to find some suitable cake in the Co-op for Carol and also, when we got to the till to pay, the young man operating the checkout was a former pupil of Carol's which was nice for her. She was pleased to see him settled into a job and making a life for himself.

We'd been home a couple of hours when the telephone rang and the driver of the car spoke to me, asking for my insurance policy number. Well, I wasn't likely to have it immediately to hand, now was I? I hadn't bothered to look for it and had really no intention of doing so. I gave him my full name and told him that Swinton would deal with the matter. It was then that Carol was a bit suspicious. Was this man trying to make a claim which was really not much of a claim? It was odd that he had his mobile out so quickly and was taking photos of the 'damage', if you could call it that, to his precious car. I began to wonder if he wasn't trying to make a false claim on my insurance. Carol said to ring Swinton on Monday morning and tell them that this so-called claim seemed a bit suspicious, particularly as the damage, if you could even call it that, was so minimal, not even that, barely a scratch. We'll have to see what they had to say and let them decide. I have driven for very nearly 50 years and in all that time I think I've only had to claim on my insurance no more than half-a-dozen times. We watch daytime television programmes about such things as false insurance claims, or at least, some which are very suspicious. I have an idea that this person makes a habit of such things and would do anything to get money out of a car driver, when the damage is so minimal it can hardly be described as such. No more than what you'd expect if you were to brush against a branch of a tree or bush when you parked or if a cat or dog scratched it with it's paw. I imagine that the insurance company would send someone out to have a look the damage for themselves before they payed out to have the car repaired. We'll have to see what happens.

Birdfeeder Returned To It's Rightful Place

We've had a birdfeeder in our garden for the past couple of years (if you can honestly describe the space to the rear of our house as a 'garden.' More like a mere oblong of grass, brambles and other indescribable vegetation.) I bought Carol what they term a 'bird-feeding station' a couple of Christmases ago in Lidl, which consisted of a central pole which you stuck in the ground and it had metal arms which fitted onto it and you hung fat balls and other feeding material onto hooks on these arms. It's didn't last too long, probably because of the weather conditions and it was difficult to keep upright and so it got removed. Earlier this year we bought a new one. I think it came from Amazon. A good deal more durable, and it had a set of feeders to put peanuts and other food into and place on the arms, similar to the old one. This was a success up to a point, until we had some strong winds and it began to lean at a somewhat precarious angle. I removed it completely a couple of weeks ago as I had to mow the lawn as it was quite difficult to do properly with this thing in the way. We decided we wanted to reinstate it at some point but the problem was keeping it from falling over and so finding some form of solution which would make this possible. We had visited a Wyevale garden centre in Bicester some while ago and saw a device which you screwed into the ground and then put the upright pole of your bird feeding station into this screw-device which was designed to keep the pole in an upright position and hopefully prevent the thing falling over or at least getting pushed over at an angle. Last week we went to the Wyevale branch in Woburn Sands with the intention of finding this item but without success. We eventually found something in Frost's, also in Woburn Sands, a four-pronged thing which you fixed to the upright pole and the four prongs acted as sort of legs for the pole and allowing the pole to be far more secure. We purchased this thing and it is now fixed to our bird feeding station, and with new feeders as well as footballs and other items which birds seem to love. We re-sited it a good deal further from the house and not too close to the neighbour's shed roof as we don't want a repeat of the squirrels jumping onto it as we have had in the past.

It's taken a while to get birds to come back to feeding from the feeding station. I think it may just be that they need to trust that they won't be eaten by either cats or our little Yorkshire terrier, Alfie. He does have a dislike of any cats who tend to congregate (if that's the best way to describe two cats.) on the roof of the shed and saunter along the fence. He can't reach them, which they are fully aware of, but it gives him something to amuse himself, chasing up the garden barking madly and they peer at him with a look of disdain down their noses. The last time we had a feeding station set up we also had a couple of squirrels who came and did their party pieces by leaping from next door's shed onto the thing, managing to avoid being impaled on the spike-thing on the top of the feeder.

I recently purchased a tripod for my Canon digital camera. Again, from Amazon. Quite good value I thought for £35. I have set this up in the kitchen and, along with the zoom lens, trained it on the bird feeder with the hope of catching some good shots of some birds on the bird feeder. It's taken a day or two before we got a regular visit from one or more blue tits to the feeder. With the camera set up and focussed on the feeder and me sitting in the lounge and watching for any birds that visit, I have to then get to the camera before the birds fly away and attempt to get some reasonable shots without frightening the birds away in my attempts to get to the camera. Not an easy task.

Sunday Drive Through Woburn Park

We regularly drive to Woburn Abbey and go through the park, to have a look at the deer. Also, the road which leads into the estate has some really spectacular rhododendron bushes along it's sides. At this time of the year they are in full bloom. Unfortunately there are other drivers on the roads who aren't bothered about the scenic beauty of the countryside and would rather speed past. We had to drive right through the park and make a circuit of the countryside and then return, and were then held up by a lone cyclist, which was annoying, but it meant we could deliberately slow down so that I could take some photographs of these stunning blooms, but those cars which got caught behind us were not too pleased and honked their horns when we held them up. I feel so sorry for those motorists who have little patience for anyone else on the roads and won't tolerate a driver who is looking at the scenery.

Rhododendrons along road leading into Woburn Park

We got to the main junction in the centre of Woburn where there is usually a hold-up. Some sort of farmer's market on along the road-side. We sped on towards Woburn Sands and visited Frost's garden centre where we had lattes in their café. As I've probably mentioned before, they've recently upgraded this garden centre and have improved the restaurant and the area we had our coffees is a new outlet. We bought bread and a cauliflower in the food hall and then a further brief wander around, browsing some of the items on sale, including the Weird Fish clothing concession and then home to Milton Keynes. 

Mixed Weather

It was a strange sort of weekend on the weather-front. It started out rather unsettled, rather over-cast, but by Sunday late afternoon it was quite sunny and warm. We didn't have to endure next door's D.I.Y. sounds. Whatever they were up to out there in their garden didn't make any sort of sound. Glimpsing from our bedroom window it looks a bit like a builder's yard with a pile of bricks in one corner and on the roof of their shed an up-turned wheelbarrow. Carol said, had I noticed the new shed? I replied, 'what shed?' There could hardly be room for another? The garden is about the same size as ours, around 15X25 feet at the most. Then she pointed out that there were sections of shed leant up against the lean-to near the house. I could see it when I had another look. Where on earth are they going to re-assemble it? There is hardly enough space. They have been putting down blocks to form a sort of patio area on one side and the remaining space is grass. Or is it turf? It must be turf, because how could grass seed suddenly sprout so quickly, and the other morning I saw a large lorry at the front of our house (it blocked us in completely) which has 'turf' written on it's side. It was one of those large flat-bed lorries which has it's own lift system built in, which would be used to unload whatever material it carried, in this case, turf. So I imagine this turf (it can't have been a particularly large amount, considering the small space left in their garden next door) was unloaded at some point in the day and which I didn't see. I just hope we don't have to endure more sounds next weekend. We were hoping for rain, so that they couldn't do any more work and spare us the constant noises. They have been laying more of the bricks for their patio/terrace (whatever you want to call it, I don't know.) The next thing well know, they have re-created Stowe Landscape Gardens with follies and lakes. Yes, that would be the last thing they'd have, a water feature, a fountain or something that makes a trickling sound. Plenty to choose from at any number of garden centres around Milton Keynes, such as Frost's or Wyevale in Woburn Sands or Dobbie's at Fenny Stratford.

Snap General Election and Other Matters

So, Teresa May has called a snap General Election for 8th June. I'm not sure how I feel about this. If it's to get her the 'mandate' she needs to allow her to get the authority regarding Brexit (I do so hate this word.) then I suppose I can see the reasoning, but I think the British public must be heartily sick of votes of one kind or another. I still think the politicians who set up the E.U. Referendum in June last year, those who framed the legislation which allowed it, should be ashamed of themselves, for not making the size of the majority, either for or against, large enough before a decision was made for remaining in the E.U., or leaving it. The fact that the majority to leave was far too small, barely I% to leave, was far too small for  Brexit to go ahead. There should have been a second referendum on the subject. Also, most people who voted probably had not the slightest idea what the E.U. was. I blame politicians for this, not making it clear what the benefits of our membership were or, on the opposite side, what the de-benefits were (if, indeed, there is such a term. But you get my idea. Or, at least, I hope you do.)

Well, enough of politics. I'm just glad that the General Election will be over in around 7 weeks. At least we don't have to have it going on relentlessly the way the American electoral system works. 

It's been fairly sunny for the past few days, but even so, it's not all that warm. There was a slight frosting on the car windscreen this morning. We're continuing to walk to the Academy each morning and we're still taking Alfie with us. He seems to be getting a good deal better at walking on his lead. I think just taking him regularly is improving his behaviour.

Yesterday morning I cut the grass. I did it really early, taking advantage of the fact that it was sunny. If you don't cut it regularly the machine won't do it's job properly. I don't think it's really up to cutting very long grass. Infact, it's really designed for a really nice manicured lawn, made of decent turf. Our bit of grass (I still refuse to term it 'lawn' as it doesn't in the last resemble a 'lawn.') It's all uneven humps and bumps. We saw some really nice turf the other day when we visited Frost's garden centre in Worburn Sands, when we went for a coffee and really nice scones and cream in their restaurant. Carol's last outing of the Easter holiday.

Wet Weather

After the warm, almost springlike weather yesterday, it's a really miserable sort of day. I'm really glad I cut the grass yesterday because today it's pouring with rain. Infact it's a good deal colder and we have the central heating on. I refuse to call that patch of grass a 'lawn' because it's nothing of the sort. A lawn is reasonably good quality grass, cut with a mower which makes the traditional stripes. Think Wimbledon tennis (I don't as I'm not a fan, but you know what I mean.) I suppose I mean what we see when we visit a National Trust property and go into the various gardens attached to these properties. Indeed, as a young man living at home, particularly Malting Farm, I was usually in charge of mowing the lawn.  I wasn't over-keen about having the job, but you had no choice. You did what your were told and just got on with it. I can actually think of nothing more boring than mowing a lawn, walking up and down, pushing the benighted thing, which wasn't always eager to start. My father was particular about the thing, making sure you checked it for oil, and then having to fill the engine with two-stroke petrol. To this very day I don't understand what is meant by 'two-stroke' petrol. How does it differ from any other petrol? We had to go to a local petrol station with the can and get it filled before I could put the petrol in the lawn mower before I could even think of mowing the lawn. Then check the oil level with the dip-stick. I suppose it was good that I was instructed on how to properly care for a petrol engine, but it was a bit of a chore, all this fuss and bother. There was a large garden at Malting Farm, Cardington, and my father was somewhat particular about how the lawn was mown. It was done with a traditional lawn mower, you know, petrol-driven, you had to empty the bucket think on the front which caught the grass as it went along. Not many up-and-down lengths before you had to stop and empty the thing into a wheelbarrow and when that was full, push the thing the length of the garden to the pile that grew exponentially at the other end of the garden. Compost heap was the word I was looking for. It gave off a very distinctive odour. I don't know what happened to it. It steamed gently. Mysterious. I expect this compost was used to bed in plants, act as a sort of fertiliser. Anyway, I'm drifting from my main subject. What I'm attempting to say is that the grass patch at the rear of this house is more like a quagmire, particularly when it rains. It's excessively uneven, which makes cutting it much more difficult. It's tusky and difficult to cut, even more so if it's slightly wet. I don't think our electric, rotary mower was made to cut such poor quality grass. More likely intended for even, flat lawns, at those houses with pocket-handkerchief sized gardens and even smaller pieces of lawn, made of nicely rolled, tended turf, purchased for some garden centre such as Frost's at Woburn Sands, or Dobbie's or even Wyevale. The mower at Malting Farm was one of those green Atco models. It had a detachable bucket on the front and you had to pull a cord to get it started, making sure you didn't flood the engine otherwise it wouldn't start. It was something of an effort to pull that cord-thing, which had a sort of wooden cross piece handle and the cord sort of re-coiled itself after you'd pulled it. It began to really hurt every muscle in your pulling arm after the sixth or so attempt.

Swimming, Shopping and Eating

I haven't posted anything for the past few days, as you will have noticed if you are a regular reader of my blog. Well, there isn't a great deal for me to write about. I know I can write about the most trivial of things, which actually makes a blog interesting, because life is made up of the most mundane of things. It's not actually the big things that are so interesting, it's the minor incidents, those things that we all recognise, that makes a blog interesting. It's what they say about drama, 'life with the boring bits taken out.' Unlike a soap opera on television, 'life with the boring bits put back.' In the future people will be looking at such things as blogs, diary entries, journals and so on, when they are researching material to attempt to understand how we lived in the early 21st Century. Attempting to understand why we spend so much of our time looking at social media, texting endlessly on mobile devices, working out how we managed our lives, so a blog like this is likely to be used in that research. One wonders how it will be preserved, how will digital material, most of it archived on computers, hard drives and serves. Will it actually survive? Unlike all those documents which were written on such material as vellum, parchment and paper, stored in the archives of countries, great estates etc etc. which have survived for hundreds of years.

Well, we are continuing to go swimming at Nuffield at Kent's Hill. It's a nice place as there's little noise, no loud music and no noisy children (no under 16's allowed.) Also, there is a sauna, spa (Jacuzzi) and steam room as well as a far deeper swimming pool which is better for me to swim in. You get a towel when you arrive, which means you always get one which is dry, although we take our own towels. We have also now bought our own pad locks, which have combination locks, so no having to have a key on a wristband, you just have to remember the combination lock, and, because mine is red it's far easier to find when you return to the changing room as you can see it clearly. I had to remember the number of my locker when I swam at the other gym, D.W. which could be a problem as you couldn't get your clothes out if you couldn't open your locker.

We went shopping at Morrison's on Saturday morning. We like to chop and change where we shop for our groceries. Usually we go to Sainsbury's in Witan Gate in Milton Keynes. It's not too big as supermarkets go. If you compare it to Asda near the stadium, it's about the right size, or there again the big Tesco at Kingston. Those two supermarkets sell a wide range of non-food items, which include clothing, which takes up a fair amount of space at Asda and Tesco, as well as stationary, newspapers and magazines, homewares, besides the general groceries that you'd expect to find in a supermarket. It means when they are so big, that you can spend forever walking up and down the aisles. You can become totally distracted by all the non-food items. When we go to Sainsbury's we do tend to spend a lot of time browsing, particularly the clothing. Also, we have our repeat prescriptions made up in the pharmacy in Sainsbury's. The staff in there know us well. You just have to ring up and they take the repeat prescription order which is sent through to the doctor's surgery at Ashfield Medical Centre and the doctor signs the prescription (which is electronic, which saves on paperwork) and they send it back to the pharmacy and they make up the prescription. This takes around a week and we just have to go into Sainsbury's to pick up the medication. The pharmacy in Sainsbury's was recently taken over by Lloyd's. I'm not sure why, because it was always, up until then, a Sainsbury's pharmacy. Something to do with being taken over as part of being a monopoly or something, and giving it to Lloyd's makes it less of a monopoly of ownership or something. No, it doesn't make sense to me either, as there are a few other Lloyd's chemists around Milton Keynes already.

As I have mentioned already, we decided to go to Morrison's to do our weekly shop last Saturday. We like their meat and cheese, infact, most of their range of such things as meat, cheese, pies and particularly fruit and veg. In Milton Keynes we're spoilt for choice when it comes to grocery shopping. There's not only Morrison's and Sainsbury's, who both have two supermarkets in the Milton Keynes area, but Tesco at Kingston (as well as at Bletchley and Wolverton, as well as the smaller convenience stores dotted around the city at such places as Oldbrook. Then we have Waitrose at Oakgrove, as well as the cheaper end of the market with Lidl (having a store near Tesco in Oldbrook, as well as Aldi, with stores at Bradwell Common and a newer store at Westcroft, we we occasionally use.

When we arrived at Morrison's Carol suggested we go into the café and have something to eat. As she's diabetic, sometimes she needs to eat something to prevent her blood sugar level dropping too far.  Having got a trolley for our shopping, we needed to put it in one of the lockable cupboards they have so that nobody can run off with your shopping without paying. It took some while to work out how the locks worked on the doors. It needs a £1 coin in the slot inside which releases the key which you then use to lock the door with the trolley inside. On arriving at the café we then found that there was a long queue at the counter. It wasn't moving, or if it was, it was incredibly slow. I suggested we just wait a while as it would soon move. It didn't, after five minutes. The staff in the café were either incredibly  disorganised or the café was understaffed. As it was a Saturday, would you not think the management of the café would have put on more staff to deal with the amount of customers? Or else the girl on the till had no idea how to cope with the pressure of numbers. Or something else. Whatever it was, we didn't find out, as we left to get on with our shopping. At that rate Morrison's will have lost a great deal of custom.

On Sunday morning we went to Nuffield at Kent's Hill. It was reasonably empty, but there's always someone or other who insists on hogging most of the pool for themselves, forgetting that they take up some much of the space as they swim up and down. The last time we went the steam room wasn't working properly. For some reason it wasn't making a great deal of steam which meant it wasn't as efficient as it might have been. But on Sunday it was back up to temperature. Certainly good for my back and shoulder injury. Still manage to swim around 15-20 lengths of the pool. But I must remember to take and use my G.T.N. spray before I get in the pool to prevent having an angina attack.

From Nuffield, we decided we needed something to eat, so we went to Frost's Garden Centre at Woburn Sands. We haven't been for a while, and were struck by the improvements that have been going on there. The restaurant has had a complete revamp. They've always had a good restaurant with a great selection of food, not just snacks, but the lunch menu looked good. I had a toasted sandwich with bacon and cheese and Carol had a baked potato and tuna and we both had lattes. Good and hot and a treat after our time at Nuffield.

Signs of Spring

Well, the weather may be somewhat undecided. One minute we have sun, the next it is raining and blowing a gale. But for all that, there are definite signs that spring is on the way. Where I parked the car when I drove into the Academy carpark at 3.30 on Friday afternoon there were catkins on the trees in front of the car. Definite signs of the trees coming into bud as well as primroses and snowdrops all along the road-sides around Milton Keynes. We drove over to Woburn and went trough the park to have a look at the deer, as we do on a regular basis. A pleasant enough drive and not too far our of Milton Keynes. About 15 minutes to get there. We went to Frost's Garden Centre in Woburn Sands to have a look round. It seems as if the place is in the process of being given a make-over. They recently did over the restaurant and it now looks as if the rest is being re-arranged. Some areas look a bit empty, but no doubt this is part of the make-over process. It's always a pleasure to visit and we had a coffee in the restaurant. Good quality food, coffee, cakes and a whole range of other items and Carol was pleased to find they had sugar-free biscuits on sale, some of which she purchased.

Kendra, the young lady who has been staying with us for the last month, has at last found a flat, which she is sharing with another young teacher from the Academy. The flat isn't too far from the Academy, in Oldbrook. We helped her move some of her stuff and went to IKEA the other day to buy bedding, towels and other items for the flat. She came back this afternoon with a car to say thanks for her accommodation and support and on opening it I found a £20 voucher for us to use for a meal in a Prezzo restaurant, so that's something for us to look forward to.