More House Cleaning

It was too hot yesterday to even think of cleaning the house. I took a load of cardboard and other rubbish to the tidy-tip, as mentioned in the last post. They said on the BBC Evening News that it was the hottest day so far this summer. I can well believe it. I was getting rather concerned when I started to get a tightness in my chest. A bit like angina. I used my G.T.N. spray and it did relieve it, but on the news they did say there was a health warning, to keep out of the sun and to not stay out in it where at all possible. The N.H.S. has issued a level 3 heat health warning to people with chronic long term health issues, (which I imagine would include myself, with a heart condition) and particularly keep out of the sun where necessary during the hottest part of the day, which would be between 11a.m and 3 p.m. The hottest place yesterday was Santon Downham, in Suffolk, with a recorded temperature of 33.3C. I know more or less where that is. It's not far from the road towards Norwich and Brandon, which was the base for some television work I did years ago and around where ''Allo,'Allo" was filmed in the 1980's.

Later. I went to Sainsbury's early. Same sort of shopping as usual, something for tonight's meal. Just salad bits as I don't fancy anything hot when the weather is so warm.

I drove into the hospital campus and waited at the entrance to the carpark, but the woman in the car in front was having problems with the barrier; it didn't want to rise. Stubborn refusal methinks. There was a car in the road in front of me. I couldn't work out what the driver was intending to do. A van arrived and a man got out. I think he was a security man, or at least a workman who was going to fix the barrier. Well, to at least get it to rise and let us through so we could park. No, the confounded things was steadfastly refusing. Just not playing ball. Just abandon the thing completely as the heat wasn't exactly helping matters. I gave up waiting. The heat wasn't exactly helping, so I decided to drive home and park the car and then walk in. I wasn't over-keen to have to walk in the intense heat, but there seemed no alternative.

After lunch (which was a bowl of tepid soup and a dried excuse for a ham sandwich. Surely it's possible to make a sandwich that isn't shrivelled up. Food from the British Rail school of catering, anyone?) as I was saying, after lunch one of the doctors came with some more encouraging news. They had found an antibiotic which could be administered which would work the infection and for two weeks Carol would need to come into the hospital on a daily basis to have this given via a P.I.C.C. line or something similar, possibly something which is mid-way between a canula and a line, which Carol had for her chemotherapy, but which was removed recently. No clear indication as to them the line would be fitted or exactly when Carol would be discharged. Hopefully tomorrow (Friday). Don't cross your fingers because if Carol is given the go-ahead to be discharged tomorrow it can take five hours for all the paperwork to be done as well as sorting out any medication that she will take home with her, as I can attest when I was in hospital some while ago. First a doctor had to sign the paperwork and it just went on for ever (figuratively, not literally.)

Wednesday morning. As I write this the house is spotless. I don't think it has been as clean. Alfie must be wondering what on earth is going on. There are one or two things that need wiping, such as windowsills, but I'm not getting to obsessive. I now just want the inspection over and done with so I can relax.

And Even More Roadworks

Carol has been off work for two days with 'flu. She has hardly been able to speak. I had to go to Boot's in the centre of Milton Keynes to get Sudafed tablets. You can only buy them 'over the counter' so it was necessary to go to a pharmacy and I knew that Boots would have them in stock. I knew if I was going to park near the main shopping centre I would need change for the machine, so I went to the Eaglestone shop, but, when I arrived at the carpark I couldn't park because it was totally full. I presumed that there must be something going on at the primary school nearby. Perhaps there was something on which meant parents were involved, some sort of performance or assembly, a prize-giving ceremony, which would account for the carpark being full. I thought to then go to the shop at Garraways in Coffee Hall, which is the next grid over from Eaglestone. It meant driving around via Saxon Street. On arriving in Coffee Hall all the roads were clogged up with more cars. Being a Friday, I was aware that the mosque on the corner of Lloyd's, the road into Coffee Hall was busy with people arriving (Friday being their holy day of prayer.) To be honest, I'd seen this building being erected, but wasn't aware that it was a mosque. Anyway, the roads in and around the area were heaving with people coming and going and you wouldn't have found a parking space if you'd wanted to. I managed to get to the One Stop shop in Garraways without too much trouble and then went in to buy some sweets so I'd have change for parking. Then I found that Saxon Street, from the Four Bridges roundabout near Eaglestone was closed off. I think because they were going to resurface the road. About time, because of the potholes, so I shouldn't really complain. It meant I would have to change my route into the city centre so drove towards Marlborough Street, only to find that other drivers had decided to change their route, as there was a considerable queue of cars approaching the roundabout.

I had intended parking where I usually park, near The Point (or what remains of this once-iconic building. It's been left in a more or less derelict state for a good many years. The Odeon cinema which was part of the complex was the first multiplex cinema complex in Britain when it was opened several decades ago. They've since built a new complex near the MK Stadium, which we have visited several times.) Due to the fact that I'd had to approach the city centre from Marlborough Street, I somehow came along Saxon Gate in the wrong lane and couldn't get into the usual carpark so I ended up parking close to the XScape. £1 for an hour, so I had to make sure I was done in the shopping centre before the hour was up. The centre was strangely busy for a Friday. It was also near enough lunchtime, so perhaps people were there during their lunch break. I could think of no other reason for it to be so crowded. I went to Boots and had to queue at the prescription counter. I wanted to get a spare G.T.N. spray and bought one here a few months ago and found it to be a good deal cheaper than elsewhere. I got one in Cox and Robinson some while back and it was one that had an unpleasant taste. If you don't know, these are sprays that you use if you get an angina attack. You spray it under your tongue and it reduces the chest pain by widening your arteries. It does work, but it can make you feel very light headed and can cause a headache. It generally goes off after a few minutes. I use one before we go swimming or if we're going to do a lot of walking or anything somewhat strenuous. I've no intention of letting an angina attack stop me doing anything, so I wanted one as a spare to put in my gym bag. I had one ordered with my repeat prescription but it wouldn't be ready until Saturday morning when we would go to Sainsbury's to pick up the prescription which I'd ordered last week. It seemed to take the lady assistant some while to find the G.T.N. spray on the computer system. But she found it and I purchased the Sudafed for Carol.

I'd been into town a few days previously (remember I'd gone out because of the annoying noise from next door.) I'd gone into The Works for a browse. I love their shops. Books going at very reasonable prices. I'd seen some colouring books (seems like a craze that's really caught on recently) and saw one using Gustav Klimt's paintings as models for colouring and thought that Carol would appreciate this. I also found several books in the 'history' section, one on Waterloo and another, written by Ruth Goodman, who does a lot of television documentaries on various aspects of history. This one entitled 'How To Be A Tudor.' Well worth having at about a third of their normal price. I've bought quite a few books in The Works, and as they now have a loyalty card, you get points which you can use against future purchases.

Time was ticking on. I walked back to the car, with about 15 minutes left on the parking ticket. I next went to Sainsbury's as I needed to get bread which we'd have for our lunch. Another detour caused by the roadworks along Saxon Street.

Saturday morning.

We didn't get up that early this morning. Carol's cold/flu is beginning to abate, thankfully. The Sedated seems to be doing it's job. It makes you sleep well and you have to be careful that, if you feel drowsy to not drive a car.

We went into Sainsbury's. Saxon Street was open to traffic. The large pothole that you had to avoid when you drove along this stretch of road is now repaired. I'm not sure what else is due for repair. They have also been mowing the grass along the side of the grid roads. I managed to mow the grass at the back of our house. Not over-eager to do it, but it only takes around 20 minutes. I did it on Monday morning.

The sky is threatening rain. Dark rain-clouds hang over the city. We actually want it to rain because we don't want the noise to continue from next door's garden. You can see the work they've been doing, laying a patio, from our bedroom window. The rest of the garden looks like a building site.

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.