Summer Starts, Not Entirely Auspiciously

 Wednesday. 8.45 a.m. Another bright and mild morning. Thank goodness the wind has dropped.

Every two years, I have to do a bowel cancer test. It's because I'm over a 'certain age' which means I would be prone to bowel cancer. I have done the test, but I won't go into detail. It is posted off, and I should get the results in around 2 weeks. The actual test is now far easier than the original test, fortunately. I do not see why the N.H.S. has to send me a letter around two weeks before the test kit arrives, informing me that I am due for this test and the kit will soon be sent. This seems a real waste of money. Why not just send the kit? I can imagine that if every man who has to do this test has a similar letter sent, it must cost a considerable amount. First class is £1.70 and second class is 75p, so you get an idea how much it's likely to cost if several million of these letters get sent out.

4.50 p.m. I have been to sit with my friend Mike who has Parkinson's so his wife, Margaret, can go to a meeting. I have been doing this for several months now. I think she needs respite as it must be quite challenging being his carer. I drive past the entrance to Camphill, and on the way home the traffic ground to a halt and I could see an ambulance ahead and someone controlling the traffic. There was glass and debris everywhere on the road and I could see a car at the side of the road, looking as if it has been in an accident and in a pretty poor state, totally smashed in. I don't think the accident can have happened much before I got to that area. I have a feeling the driver might have driven out of the road leading into Camphill. I couldn't see a second vehicle which might have caused the accident, possibly hitting the other vehicle, but I have the feeling that the driver wasn't being careful enough when they turned into the flow of traffic. If that was the case, it would have been easier to turn left and go to the next roundabout and come back in the direction they must have wanted to go.

Thursday. 7.20 a.m. The weather has done another about-turn. It's 'sort of' raining. Not torrential, but thin and rather miserable, as if it can't make its mind up.

2.20 p.m. I have mentioned my problems getting my new Sony camera to connect to the hand grip via Bluetooth. With this you can operate the camera, the zoom function as well as the still photo and video functions. It makes operating far easier because it can be held as well as transforming into a mini tripod. I now have to set up the Joby microphones, which I  recently bought on Amazon.

As I say, my options to finding a solution to the problem were running out. I had gone on YouTube to watch videos about setting the camera up with the hand grip, but to no avail. There are few cameras in Milton Keynes. There used to be two branches of Jessops, but both have closed down. I then recalled a company called Wex, which I thought had a branch in Milton Keynes. I found it, in the Exchange building in Midsummer Boulevard. I seem to remember working for a care agency which had there offices in this shopping centre, so I knew how to find it. The problem was not just finding the place, but parking my car. I could have parked in the Seklow Gate car park, which is next to The Point, but it would have meant a long walk to the store. I decided to see if I could park along Midsummer Boulevard, so I drove there and eventually found a space. Fine. Then I attempted to use the RingGo app on my mobile. But for some unfathomable reason it would not work. Plan B sprang into action! Pay with my debit card at the parking machine, just along the street a couple of yards. You have to type in your car's registration number and press a couple of keys and use your contactless card and, hey presto! But no! That decided to fail. After two attempts I was not in a particularly good mood. I drove away, thinking that I'd go home and forget the whole sorry situation, but at the last moment I thought I'd park in the car park underneath Sainsbury's and walk to Wex, which is what I did. So, I drove to Sainsbury's car park and found a space and then walked to Wex store. Meanwhile, it was drizzling which didn't help my mood, which had been shattered by the problems with the RingGo app and the ticket machine. It was easy enough to find the store within the Exchange building. It's not a place I know well and it would not have been the most obvious place to find a camera shop. It didn't seem exactly busy, so goodness knows what the foot fall was like.

I went inside the store and asked one of the staff if he could help with setting up the grip on the camera. It turned out that I had pressed one of the wrong buttons on the grip which was why it wouldn't connect to the camera via Bluetooth. I have to say I was more than pleased and may go back if I need to go to Wex, basically because there are so few camera shops in Milton Keynes. I am thinking more for advice, such as I did when I went there to help set up the grip with the camera.

House-Hunting

The title of this blog post is correct, up to a point. But it should be 'home-hunting' but that doesn't really work.  Nit-picking, I know, or being pedantic (which is the same thing, or tortological), but does it matter, and do you, or I, really care? Probably not. A flat, bungalow or any sort of one-bedded home would be preferable. I just can't continue to live in this house because the rent is too high and Milton Keynes Council will not pay the full amount, for whatever reason I can't fathom. I rang several agencies this morning, having been given a list when I went to the Council offices yesterday morning. I was told that they couldn't help because I wasn't homeless, which is true up to a point, but I am trying to sort things out before I have problem, which is one reason i went to Citizens' Advice this morning, rather than going to Camphill to work with the drama group as I have done each Tuesday for the past two weeks. I hope to go back next week. I did ring to say I wouldn't be there at 8.30.

I had been given a list of agencies which I began to ring early this morning. Not a great deal of use. The minute you say 'Housing Benefit' they don't always want to help. A couple said that someone would return my call, a person who deals with rental properties, so I waited, and waited, but no call came back. Just annoying and a waste of my time. So it occurred to me that perhaps Citizens' Advice might be more helpful. I just need someone to be a bit more supportive of my situation. I wasn't entirely sure where the CAB office was in Milton Keynes, so I had to go on Google Maps and then, when I drove into the city centre and parked the car, I used my iPhone and the maps app to guide me to the office in Midsummer Boulevard.

I was handed a form to fill in as soon as I arrived, by the lady on the reception desk. So I sat down and began to fill in the form. The usual stuff you have to put on such a form. Why was I there? My age, address, age and goodness knows what else. Did I mind them sharing my details 'with other agencies,' or something. A declaration for G.D.P.R. (General Data Protection Regulations). There weren't many people waiting with me. I also had a card with a number on it, right this moment I can't remember the number, and then I heard someone call out the number. It was behind me. This seems the general procedure in most places, you get given a ticket or card with a number on it and then you have to wait for the number to be called out or appear on a digital screen, as in the case of the doctor's surgery, a clinic at the hospital, the Jobcentre or Council offices.

I was eventually called into an office by one of the advisors. I was surprised how quickly I was seen. Having used C.A.B. when I lived in Bedford, I can remember vividly having to wait around 2-3 hours to be seen. I know there weren't as many other people waiting when I was in the Milton Keynes office, it seemed a good deal more efficiently run than the Bedford branch. Or they have more staff and a better procedure before you get seen by anyone. It doesn't look as if there are many options for alternative accommodation. House prices are sky high in Milton Keynes, probably higher than most parts of Britain, probably because Milton Keynes is such a successful town. It is expanding rapidly and there are plenty of jobs. As a consequence, people will pay higher prices for houses and also rent is higher than the average. Many people rent, particularly when there is a floating population, those who come to work here briefly and don't intend buying a property. So as a result of all this I'm finding it difficult to find somewhere else to live. I was given a list of housing association telephone numbers to try. Probably they would have somewhere for me to move to and, because they aren't run to make a profit, they would look after their tenants better than an organisation which is profit-based and have shareholders.

On arriving home I began to ring some of the numbers on the list I had been given. One of the housing associations is Bedford Pilgrim's. I didn't realise they had properties in Milton Keynes. I used to live in one of their flats when I lived at Beauchamp Court in Bedford. I discover that I can't approach them directly to be put on a waiting list for a property. I have to go through the Council. I have to send an email to them and I soon get a reply. I have to be homeless to apply. What is going on here? I'm going out of my way to avoid being homeless. They won't help me, as I was told when I visited the Council offices on Monday. I feel really annoyed. It seems that nobody wants to help me. One suggestion made when I was at the C.A.B. office yesterday was, would I consider having a lodger, who would pay rent which would make up the difference that I'm not getting in Housing Benefit? This has crossed my mind. There is a largish spare room, which was Daniel's when he lived with us. I'm not so sure it's such a good idea. It would have to be a male lodger, someone I trusted and anyway, I'd have to have my landlord's approval and I'm not sure he would agree to having a lodger. This person would pay his rent directly to the landlord and he'd have to interview any prospective candidates. It would seem to be one solution to this problem, but I still can't think why the Council can't pay all of my rent.

A knock on the door at around lunchtime yesterday. I rush to answer and two people standing on the doorstep, a young man and a girl, with clipboards in their hands. From some power provider. I say, 'oh no, not more!' They turn tale and walk away. It's getting annoying, this. It was P.P.I. I'd get telephone about, but now it seems every power company under the sun is out touting for custom. That's three i've had in the past couple of weeks, several offering to install a smart meter. I know they are only doing their job, but I'm getting heartily sick of them coming to the door or telephoning me.