Disappointments and Frustrations

Sunday. 5.55 p.m. Yesterday the men's breakfast group met at the  Harvester  Fountain inn in Loughton. It's just off Watling Street and just along the road from where Carol and I lived when we were first married, in Crownhill. 

Just a matter of interest. It intrigues me that Loughton is pronounced as it sounds (Low-ton) while Woughton-On-The-Green, the next village going out of Milton Keynes (both being villages now swallowed up by the new town of Milton Keynes), is pronounced Woof-ton. Just makes things difficult for anyone new to the area. Probably one of the quirks of the English language. Try explaining that to an American, or any other foreign visitor!

Thursday. 7.25 p.m. I haven't been keeping up with things in these blog posts. On Thursday I drove to Camphill with the hope of meeting the drama workshop guys and the new drama team. I went to the office and was told that I could do my Disclosure online. But then when I got home I had an email from Camphill to say that there had been another change of plan. Due to the disruption of the pantomime which is being performed in the Chrysalis Theatre over the Christmas period, I would not be able to meet the team, so I will have to arrange another day to visit and do a taster day (which is what I did originally when I first went to Camphill as a volunteer in around April 2019.) After that, I can do the disclosure and hopefully get back to working in the drama workshop.

I had an email on Wednesday morning saying that I had been 'put forward' for walk-on work at Pinewood Studios on a Disney production. No name or anything much. I needed to upload several photos to the Pop website, the casting site. I got Barbara to take these shots on my iPhone and then managed to upload them successfully. I would have to go to Pinewood on Friday for a costume fitting and the filming day would be on Monday. As usual, a wait to get a response, and then today I got another email telling me I had been released (i.e.; not selected.) Ho Hum! It was what I expected, but one always hopes one will eventually get selected. Just one day on something or other would be great. Such is life!

Saturday. 11.35 p.m. I have been interested in something called 'Portal,' which has been created by Facebook. It's a technology that allows you to video chat with people, your family, friends, and others by using a screen with a camera attached. OK, you can do all this on your PC or laptop and I have used Zoom during the various lockdowns we've had during the past eighteen months or more, especially for church meetings and bits of market research I have done.  It is connected to Facebook live video. Except I wouldn't want to have another gadget as I already have enough gadgets. I had imagined it would be great to be able to video chat through my television set if I was able to have a camera attached to my set so that I could use Zoom or other similar video conferencing software on my MacBook and that connected somehow to my television set.  The only problem with Zoom on a laptop is that staring at a small screen and then the tiny postage stamp-sized images of the other people in the meeting can be quite a strain. So, what amazement was it to find that Facebook had released such a piece of technology and called Portal TV? Zoom will work on it and as it's on a large television screen it would be far more comfortable to use looking at a larger image. Not only that, but you can video call family and friends using this technology. Then I found that this gadget was going to be available at half price for Black Friday. (Why does Black Friday last for several weeks? Not just one particular Friday? And could someone explain why it's Black? No, please, don't. I don't want to get into such a discussion on here. . . ) I could buy one at this low price via BT. Which is what I did. Paid for, and it would be delivered by Mailforce, part of Royal Mail. Simple. Or so I imagined. It wasn't the ordering that was difficult. Just the delivering. The thing was ordered on Wednesday, and it was scheduled to be delivered on Friday, between around 12.30-1.30 p.m. Which I learned via email and text message.

I waited in expectation of the delivery of the parcel. At around 12.30 I got a buzz on the intercom from the front door of Dexter House to say the aforementioned parcel had been delivered but to the wrong address.     Not my flat number, but the house opposite. This is constantly being a problem. The gentleman from the house opposite had a card with my address on it, and it said I could collect my parcel after 24 hours! Looking at the card it had my correct address, so why didn't the delivery driver merely turn round and see that Dexter House was opposite? Well, it was merely a matter of reading the address correctly. No real excuse. So, I was annoyed that I would have to wait a full 24 hours before I could collect the parcel.

The next day I drove into the Centre MK to meet up with my friend Nick who came to Milton Keynes on a bus from Northampton. I intended to park in the Secklow car park next to The Point and normally have no issues using the RingGo app on my phone. But for some reason, it would not work because you have to put in more identity before you pay. So it was fortunate I had sufficient coins in my jacket pocket to put in one of the ticket machines. Yet another of life's frustrations. When technology works, it's fine, but when it doesn't or is changed for whatever reason, it can be annoying.

Having met up with Nick I then drove to the mail delivery office in Brinklow. I have had to collect several parcels from here, so I was hoping that I could pick up the parcel and then return to my flat to set up the Portal TV on my television set. But no. Having taken the card which was left when the drive was going to deliver the parcel to the wrong house, I then learnt that I would need to collect the parcel fro the Parcelforce unit in Tongwell. So I got back in the car and drove across Milton Keynes to Tongwell, to just opposite Willen village. But, lo and behold! I was told by the rather disinterested girl on the reception desk that my parcel was at the Post Office in the centre of Milton Keynes! This was beginning to get somewhat repetitive. Why on earth wasn't I given this information in the first place?  I could easily have collected it when I was with Nick earlier in the day. Another car journey into the centre. But where to park? I had no change on me, thanks to having to use the payment machine in the Secklow car park when the RingGo app didn't work as it should, so I drove around aimlessly hoping there might be a free spot to park whilst I went into the Post Office to collect the parcel. No luck! Then I found myself driving into the newly-opened multi-storey car park next to John Lewis. There was no alternative but to drive in and park. I first had to negotiate the barrier, having to put my debit card into the machine. I later found that I should have taken a ticket from the machine and once I'd collected the parcel I then realized I had to put this ticket (which I didn't have.) in one of the payment machines to then pay with my card. Oh, what an adventure the entire afternoon had been. But I did manage to get out eventually, managing to get a ticket from the exit and then putting it into another machine to lift the barrier, so I could get out!

On arriving back at Dexter House I then found that some kind person had parked their car across the entrance to my parking space, which was so nice of them, but later in the evening, I went down to move my car onto my space once the car had driven away. Just a wonderful end to a long, and difficult afternoon.

Yet Another Trip To Hospital

Tuesday. It's a very dull, grey and over-cast day. Somewhat depressing. We had to go to the Oncology Suite at 11.30 this morning as Carol had a blood test. Fortunately we managed to get the one and only parking space in the carpark. Always a problem when we have an appointment at the hospital so much later in the day.

We arrived in the Oncology Suite and it was extremely busy. The nurses work incredibly hard in this department. They never seem to stop. Probably dealing with more than one patient at a time. We sat and waited around a table as we usually do when we arrive. There was a lady in a wheelchair who went off to be set up with her chemotherapy session and I was left with Carol and an elderly man who was being very chatty. Carol went off with one of the nurses to a different area of the suite. The elderly man was telling me about the lady in the wheelchair. Apparently she was 94 and had been asked what was the secret of keeping so young and active. She responded with 'a glass of whisky every day!' We began to discuss the car parking at the hospital, and had the same thoughts about the morality of having to pay to park your car at  hospital and how much it cost. I was shocked to learn that a private company ran these carparks and kept the profits for itself, which is appalling when you think of the financial difficulties the N.H.S. finds itself in.

I went to join Carol the other side of the suite. She had to have a blood test, which is how the chemotherapy treatment begins each time, so we have got used to the procedure. The nurses are extremely efficient and everything is done quickly, so we were out of the unit within about 45 minutes. Well, it has to be run like this, as there are so many people in the unit, arriving and leaving all the time during the day. It couldn't be run any other way as there isn't space for all the patients to sit and have their treatment at the same time otherwise.

Having had the parking ticket clipped in the Macmillan unit after we arrived, we then found, when we got back to the carpark and were about to leave, that the barrier was raised so we didn't need the ticket to raise the barrier. It must be very annoying to those patients who can't have free car parking to then find the barrier raised when they've already paid at the machine. I trust they get a refund. I don't expect they would, unfortunately.

Wednesday. It's a very wet morning. Had to put the pink recycling bags out along with the black bin bags. Probably not such a good idea to go out in night-wear, but it has to be done. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the bin-men didn't come until late last week, basically because of the Bank Holiday. Are we allowed to call them 'bin-men'? Do we have to call them 'bin-persons' or 'refuse operatives or something, just to keep things politically correct? I've no idea, but there are one or two person's of the opposite persuasion on board the Council-run wagons. Not probably on our collection, but no doubt elsewhere within Milton Keynes. Perhaps we can't say 'black bin-bags' to keep things PC and maybe even 'pink bin-bags' is going to upset someone or other. But let's be realistic, do people get their tights in a tangle over such things, or is it some bureaucrat somewhere who has to come up with such stupidity? No racial slur or homophobic suggestion in the slightest. They are just bin-bags, after all.

After all the fuss when Woughton Community Council left those notices as regarding fly-tipping when people put their bin bags out too early (me included), I notice that there is a lot of broken furniture, such as bits of what look like broken kitchen units, doors and drawers, as well as a rolled-up mattress and odd bits and pieces of furniture, including a worn out sofa, left around the estate. No doubt most is there for someone to collect, such as the Council (you have to organise this in advance, and pay to have it removed.) But who gets fined for 'fly-tipping'? Just a thought, 'Woughton' is actually pronounced 'Woof-ton.' If that's the case, why is Loughton (another village within the Milton Keynes area.) is pronounced 'Low-ton,' so why not 'Luff-ton,'? Weird or what? Just shows how strange our language is.

Later. We went to the hospital for 11.30 but couldn't find a space where we usually park. We had to drive around the hospital campus and park in Car park A and then walk round to Oncology, quite a long walk.  Unfortunately we got things wrong. When we arrived in the Oncology Suite, the staff on reception couldn't find Carol on the system. It would appear we were 24 hours too early as Carol wasn't booked in until tomorrow morning. They could have fitted her in but on checking, they didn't have the prescribed material necessary for her chemotherapy treatment. So we left to go home and will return tomorrow at the same time.