All Is Fair In Love and War

 Thursday. 1.15 p.m. Last evening, the men's breakfast group had a curry night at the Nut and Squirrel pub in Westcroft. It's actually right next to the Morrison's supermarket. I wasn't sure where I could park before going, so I went on Google Maps and discovered the pub had its own car park. 

I went inside the pub, expecting to find some sort of reception, but there wasn't one. I waited for about ten minutes and then one of the 'regular' men's breakfast members turned up, followed by Richard, who is one of the people who lead the group. He spoke to a member of staff, and then they discovered that there was no record of the booking on their computer system. I think it was the manager of the pub. He said they had had problems with their fryers or something and there was the possibility that we weren't going to have our curry. But, eventually, the manager said that they would be able to provide our curries. We went through to the dining room where there were several tables we could sit at, but, unfortunately, not able to push them together to make a larger table. We had to wait quite a while before a waitress came and took our drinks orders and, soon, our food. Actually, a pleasant way to spend an evening, but not the number of people who usually come to men's breakfasts.

6.24. p.m. I went to help set up the Acorn's playgroup as I usually do on a Thursday morning and also, take part in a Bible study. When I came out and was in the café area, I was informed that there was some news for me. It was about finding someone to look after Alfie when, or if, I got to Worcester. As you may or may not be aware, this has caused quite a few headaches because it's not really a good idea to take Alfie as he doesn't settle at Chloe and Steve's. He barks continuously and can't cope with my grandchildren. So I have had to stay in Milton Keynes at Christmas. This situation would be resolved if I could find someone to have him stay, who is dog friendly and Alfie is settled with them. This lady lives in Shenley Brook End (not far from The Oaktree Centre, in fact.) and came to church on Sunday because we had someone preaching who did a presentation on The Persecuted Church and the work of Open Doors ministry. It just happened that my name came up during all this and that I needed someone to care for Alfie. I was given this lady's phone number, and I'm going to visit her on Sunday afternoon with Alfie and see how he gets on with her, and vice versa. Let's hope it goes well, so I can have a long weekend with Steve, Chloe and the grandchildren.

Friday. 5.20 a.m. So, once again, I'm wide awake and writing this blog post. I was out with Alfie at around 4.45. It's another bright and pleasant morning. The digital thermometer currently reads 24ºC. The windows are open and the electric fan in the lounge has been on all night.

2.50 p.m. The thermometer currently reads 27ºC. 

Saturday. 5.25 a.m. I have taken a rather reluctant Alfie out, and we did our usual circuit of Oldbrook Green.

I'm intrigued by how the grass has been cut on Oldbrook Green. It looks far shorter cut and the loose-cut grass has been removed, making it look like a traditional cricket ground (is it pitch? I'm not sure. Not a cricket fan.) A lot of crows strutting about the further side, looking like military types, with their arms behind their backs, inspecting the troops.

Last evening we had another quiz night at the Oaktree Centre. My team didn't do particularly well. I think there were far more teams involved than the last quiz night.

The digital thermometer currently reads 24ºC. I really hope it doesn't get any warmer.

11.45 a.m. The digital thermometer is currently reading 26ºC. Please, don't get any hotter.

6.30 p.m. Not a great deal happening today. The heat has put me off. I was going to do some more videoing, but I decided against it.

The temperature recorded on the digital thermometer is currently 29ºC.

Some Like It Hot!

Saturday. 6.10 a.m. The title is from one of my all-time favourite films, 'Some Like It Hot', starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe.  It really can't be bettered and must never, under any circumstances, be remade. 

Another warm and sunny morning. The temperature, as recorded by my digital thermometer, reads 72ºF. This is about as low as it's been in quite some time.

We are being warned that the temperature is going to reach somewhere in the region of 104ºF on Monday and Tuesday. There is a red warning in place by the weather forecasters, which is the first time this has been issued in Britain. But do we really need to be warned? Can't we make our own minds up? It smacks of infantilization. This never ever happened years ago, particularly during the heatwave of the summer of 1976. The government has called a 'national emergency.' Crazy. Just going somewhat over the top.

2.50 p.m. We had another men's breakfast this morning. We met in Morrison's store in Westcroft. Richard, who is the leader of the group (whether he likes being called that is another matter.), but he has covid, so he didn't appear. This group is now officially meeting in the community room in Morrison's, but none of the staff seemed to know, even though it was clearly written on the whiteboard outside the room. Not really a problem. We all ordered our food and then it was bought in as it was ready by staff. When we finished at around 10 o'clock, a group of us then went to the Oaktree Centre to assist with the construction of a tent, or to be more precise, a 'gala' tent. It was/is made up of a series of metal tubes which lock together. A bit of an enigma until you begin to put it together, following a printed manual. Once the sections are connected one to the other, there are bolts that screw the various sections together and are then tightened with an Allen key. We only constructed the roof section and once this was assembled it was moved into the open courtyard space where it would be completed tomorrow. This is for an outdoor service tomorrow and is part of the summer festival.

The temperature currently reads 79ºF on my digital thermometer.

On the way home, I went into Sainsbury's to buy some food for the picnic at church tomorrow. As I don't have a working oven at the moment, I bought salad stuff, a sun hat (a rather natty trilby, by the way!) and some spray sunblock, which I find easier to put on rather than greasy sun lotion which I hate. When I got home I decided I needed a cool box for carrying food to the picnic and went on the Argos website and ordered one and immediately went to their shop in Grafton Gate to collect it. I was also hoping they might have some of those freeze blocks you can get which you put in your freezer, and they freeze and are used to cool your picnic items in your cool box. But they had sold out, not surprising because of the hot weather. I then went round to Morrison's, which is behind the Argos store and asked a member of staff, and she said they didn't have any, but I could have a load of industrial cool blocks they used to keep stock cool. I was taken into a storage area, not normally accessible to customers, and a young man gave me a pack full of these cooling blocks without me having to pay! 

'Ere We Go Again!

Friday. 10.35 a.m. I'm currently attempting to make a cheesecake. It's for the 'bring-and-share' lunch at church on Sunday. I made one some while ago and I was quite pleased with it. But it was an American recipe and all the measurements are in crazy American quantities. How do you interpret such things as 'a cup' or 'a spoon'? I would rather have a recipe which uses metric measurements, as they are far easier to deal with. I'm making the biscuit base but underestimated the quantities and so have had to make far more. I think the secret is to put the butter and caster sugar in the pan and heat it until it does a bit like toffee and then add the biscuit crumb. This is made using my food processor. Easy to make crumbs and very fast. The base is now cooling in the fridge, which I spent the whole morning the other day cleaning it out as it was a necessary task, but now it is sparkling. I know it's boring, but in some ways I find it therapeutic, because it turns a dirty or untidy situation into something better, cleaner and life is improved. In this case, the fridge is, hopefully, safer and at best, free from bacteria which can turn food that is stored in it, bad and possibly give me food poisoning. It also makes me feel better, and I look at it and think, 'a job well done!' Apart from that, it passes the time. How many jobs such as this have been done during lockdown, due to the pandemic? I imagine quite a few people cleared out stuff from their loft or garage during lockdown, or got rid of stuff which they no longer had a need for.

4.00 p.m. After quite a bit of effort, the cheesecake is finished! It remains in its tin and will remain so until I get to church and release it. The tin is one with a loose bottom and a spring catch which released the metal ring. Hopefully, and I say, hopefully, it should come out of the tin in one piece. I now intend to buy some raspberries which I shall get in Sainsbury's as I need to go and pick up a repeat prescription from Lloyd's pharmacy which is within Sainsbury's store. 

6.15 p.m. The flat is exceptionally warm-again. My digital thermometer currently reads 82ºF. That's with my electric fan on full, a window in the bathroom and absolutely no other heating on. Why would I have the heating on in the middle of summer? 

Saturday. 6.40 a.m. It's a good deal cooler in the flat this morning. The digital thermometer currently reads  77ºF. 

10.30 a.m. We met at Morrisons at Westcroft for our monthly Men's Breakfast. It was scheduled to begin at 8.30. I got there extra early and because it was a bright and sunny morning there seemed no excuse. This particular store has been upgraded, and the café is now far more modern and laid out differently. I used to bring one of my people here when I was a home carer for Guardian. He used to do some shopping and then we'd go into the café for a snack and cup of coffee. Another situation where they were short-staffed. This is becoming a real problem, not helped because of the pandemic and people either being laid off or leaving to work elsewhere. We had to queue up to order our breakfast and then go to another counter to get tea or coffee but there was a real hold-up. If they'd had a couple of extra members of staff it would have been so much quicker. Then we went into what they term the 'Community Room' which seems to be a new addition since the recent make-over. Like a boardroom with a large table in the centre with chairs all around, whiteboards and somewhere to make tea and coffee and a sink. It made me think of 'The Apprentice' on television and Lord Sugar pointing at one of the participants and shouting 'You're fired!" We ate our breakfasts and it was good to share stuff with one another. It looks as if we're going to use it on a regular basis and it's free which makes it even better.

3.25 p.m. A walk around Oldbrook Green mid-afternoon. A couple attempting to fly a kite and making a real hash of it. If he had a shorter string and walked backwards from the direction of the wind he might have got on better. 

Sunday. 5.40 a.m. Alfie and I were out on the grass alongside Strudwick Drive around 5.15 this morning. It's another really fine and sunny day and it looks like it's going to stay that way for the rest of today.

4.30 p.m. I have earlier mentioned the bring and share lunch at church. It was this morning. We had worship as usual and I don't think I've seen the Oaktree Centre so busy. Absolutely packed. I took the cheesecake with me and  all the food was stored in the kitchen ready for it to be put out on tables in the café area and then, once the service was over, everyone came through to serve themselves from the tables, which was set up as a buffet. I got to try the cheesecake. I have to say it was something of a let down. It tasted fine, but it was just boring. Pity it was chocolate or fruit flavoured, but there was a certain amount of lemon in it. It must have been a success in some way, because it all went and not a single bit left, thankfully, as I didn't want to take any of it home with me.

Supermarket Broom Hunt and Blustery Weather

(Friday)The wind and cold continues. I just hope it doesn't come back stronger than ever. They have said on the weather forecast on BBC Breakfast this morning that we can expect more extreme weather, so it's a matter of 'batten down the hatches' once more. More like, tie down your wheeley bins, as they have a habit of moving when the wind is strong!

I went to Morrison's this morning. I'm looking for a broom so I can sweep the floor of the flat. How difficult is it to find a suitable broom for this job in Milton Keynes? You would think it would be relatively easy to find such a broom. I looked in Sainsbury's the other day, but no luck. You can buy a brush on a sort of long handle with a pan to collect what you've swept up, but I don't want one because I already have a dustpan and brush. I thought, if I go on line and have a look at Morrison's website I can check this out and I also want some superglue to fix on the handle of the trolley I bought on Amazon, which arrived yesterday morning, along with two books I'd ordered. The thing was easy enough to put together, except the bar which is for pushing it around has the screw holes in the wrong place and it wouldn't fit together, so I thought that superglueing it would be sufficient. I also looked for this on the Morrison's website, and there it was. Which is why I went to their branch near Milton Keynes station.

I got to Morrison's, parked the car, went up on the travelator (which, up to the point I arrived at the foot off wasn't operating, until a man came along and took away the barrier and the thing began to move. It amuses me that it moves slowly up until the point you step on it and then it moves a good deal faster.) When I arrived on the shop floor and approached the trolley park, I discovered that you now had to insert a £1 coin in order to use a trolley. Previously they didn't need a coin. I went back to the car and put the bags back in the back of the car and returned to the store and had a look for the broom and superglue and then changed my mind and decided to go to the cashpoint outside the store to take out a £10 note and then went back inside to get it changed into coins at the kiosk and began my walk around the store. Enough food to keep me going for at least two or three weeks. I found the basic brush for a broom, but there was no handle! As for the superglue, no sign, which was annoying, since I had come into Morrison's with the intention of finding and buying these items. What on earth is the use of the brush without the handle? It's not a broom until it has said handle.

I next thought was, find a member of staff and ask about the broom-handle. Surely a staff member would be able to tell me where I could get the handle to attach to the aforementioned brush? I saw a lady stacking shelves, but she moved further away when I spoke. Perhaps she didn't hear me, but I eventually caught up with her and asked about the handle. The lady said that she had wanted to buy a broom herself and found there was no matching handle and had mentioned this to the store manager and told me I would be better off going to the nearby Range store, which was a bit off, considering she was telling me to go elsewhere to buy a broom. So, on leaving Morrison's, I went directly to The Range, which is almost immediately across the road from Morrison's, in Winter Hill. I was somewhat surprised to see a large sign up on the outside of the building which houses The Range, emblazoned with the name Iceland and then, on entering the store, finding that to one end there is indeed an Iceland, taking up a considerable amount of space. I found a broom! Eurika! And after walking the length of the store, a tube of superglue, and with these finds firmly grasped in my hand, I went to pay at the till. I made the passing comment to the lady on the till about the near impossibility of finding a broom. I said that perhaps there was a convention of witches who had bought them all up, which got a laugh, and she said she knew a few witches, not, I'm sure, real, but I said I had worked with one or two, not giving names, but, again, it got a laugh, so at least it made someone smile and made their day.  So, mission complete, I returned home and then took Alfie out for a further walk. It has become fairly blustery, even more than it was earlier and we walked around Oldbrook Green and then returned home.

Change For Change Sake

I've been to Bleak Hall Motors after 9 this morning (Thursday) to book the Renault Captur in to have it's annual MoT. I discovered that the current MoT runs out on 8th August, so it's as well I had thought to have it done. It's booked in to be done at 1p.m. on Monday. I just hope it doesn't need much doing to it to pass. I have a feeling that the brakes might need doing as last time it was MoT'd they said one was in need of replacing. The other thing I was told was that, because it's a diesel car, the timing belt will need replacing before December, another expense, but it has to be done. It has something to do with how the pistons are timed. It can't be left, but with my financial situation, it will have to be done in the next month after my pension has gone into my account. It will cost around £300 or so.

As I was driving along Standing Way, going to Bleak Hall and was turning right on the roundabout, a car very nearly hit me, speeding across without stopping. Another couple of feet and he would have hit me. No wonder my nerves are a wreck after driving. Stupid idiot, it's people like him who make the roads a battlefield and are responsible for high motor insurance premiums. I wouldn't be surprised if this youth, because I saw him as he sped by, doesn't have any insurance, so if he had hit me, goodness knows what would have happened. Scary.

From Bleak Hall I drove to Sainsbury's. I had to collect medications I only recently ordered over the phone, one of them being Diazepam. I was surprised that the Bisoprolol which had only been ordered a day or so ago was ready for collection. I have heard from the pharmacist at Lloyd's that the procedure for ordering will be changing in September. I won't be able to order as I currently do, by merely ringing Lloyd's and giving them the medications on my repeat list. They contact Ashfield Medical Centre to get the doctor to provide the prescription, which is signed and then emailed to the pharmacy. But from September I will have to order direct from Ashfield. I can set up an on-line account with the surgery and use that to order what I need to have on repeat. It worries me that this isn't going to work. I don't think I trust the system. I will be on edge that if I order that the surgery will get the order and then contact Lloyd's to make up the order. I feel sorry for the older patients who don't have access to the internet, let alone a computer, and wouldn't have any idea how to use one, so how are they expected to reorder their repeat medications? Does it mean they have to go to the surgery and make a paper order? Am I expected to do that? Why change a system which is working so well? It has been so easy, just to ring in my order, which I do when there are enough days for order to go through before my stock runs out. Some crazy pen-pusher somewhere, with no idea of the dress and upset this will cause seems they have to change things for change sake. If enough people were to complain I reckon it could be left alone. It's the people who waste such things as appointments, make them and never actually go to them, wasting N.H.S. resources in a really negative fashion.

Friday. Noon. It's a bright and sunny day. But the sun keeps going in and out. One minute, Bright, the next, it clouds over. Never mind. I'm actually bored silly. If Carol was here, we'd be going out and about, to Whipsnade, probably London, one of the National Trust properties, Wimpole Hall perhaps. But she's not, and my life's empty. I mustn't get myself upset, but it's days like these when the loneliness is the worst.

This morning I was planning to go to the Oaktree Centre to sample the food in the newly-opened café. One of Shenley Christian Fellowship members, Tim O'Brien is part of a musical group called Fadin' Shoes. It was he who drove me to the John Radcliffe Hospital to have my stent fitted. I drove out of Eaglestone at around 11.40 which would have given me plenty of time to get to Shenley, but, driving down Chaffron Way, the road ahead, at the roundabout where it intersects with Fulmer Street, there was a road sign in red stating quite clearly 'Road Closed, and a gang of workmen, presumably resurfacing the road. There was absolutely no advance warning as I drove along Chaffron Way, so this came as rather a shock, to say the least. I turned left and came to Standing Way and eventually got onto Watling Street and drove as far as Childs Way with the intention of hopefully getting into Chaffron Way further up towards Morrisons at Westcroft, but even that road was closed off at the roundabout at the intersection with Fulmer Street. So, not feeling very happy that my day had been ruined, I decided to head home along Fulmer Street and get home. Annoyed isn't the word, because I have wanted to listen go the music and have something to eat in the newly-opened café which has been a long time in the planning.

Moving Forward

At last! I had my appointment at the AgeUK office in the Food Centre yesterday morning (Thursday). I'm grateful to my lovely Mother-In-Law for suggesting this to me. I rang the Age UK branch in Milton Keynes, which is actually only a short distance from home and was given the telephone number of their central Milton Keynes office. I got an appointment yesterday at 11 o'clock. It seems I can claim further benefits and he will help me with the various bits of paperwork and references so that I can at last move out of this house and pay far lower rent which housing benefit will cover. It has been a long journey to get a positive response to all this and once I am moved I can get on with my life. What I need to do is go on line to websites such as Rightmove and begin to search for suitable accommodation, one bedroom, bit of garden for Alfie and with a rent level which will be covered by housing benefit.

(Friday) I've been looking on Rightmove for suitable, affordable accommodation, fitting in with the budget I've been set by housing benefit. It's not easy. I thought I'd found somewhere absolutely suitable in Bradwell, reasonable monthly rent, nice looking (having seen photographs on the website,) with a bit of garden and what looks like a great kitchen, but looking again this morning it's a shared house. I really don't fancy sharing, but if I can't find anywhere that fits what I can afford then I may have to rent out the spare room here, with our landlord's permission as well as the housing benefit people. I know I've just said I don't want to share, but in the end if that is the only way to be able to afford the rent here, then I may have to go down that avenue.

(Saturday) It was frosty when I went out with Alfie earlier this morning. Because of the clocks changing, it's light so much earlier, so we manage to get out by 6.30. Alfie's always eager to get out for his run around the park, so he doesn't mind. There's been a really beautiful sunrise these past couple of days. I did manage to take a photo with my iPhone but unfortunately it doesn't do justice to the actual sunrise. It doesn't show the diffuse nature of the view. I can't describe it any other way.

On Saturday morning I went to the men's breakfast at 8 o'clock. I was informed that I was on what is called the Genesis rota for Sunday morning, but I didn't realise this. I am supposed to get either a text message or email a few days in advance, but I didn't get either. It was as well I went to the Saturday morning breakfast. Great to get a full English breakfast, the works, a bit like what you'd get if you were on location, filming for the good old BBC. It was one of the perks of doing 'walk-on' work, getting to a location, deep in the heart of the countryside, signing in with one of the A.D's  (Assistant Directors)or unit manager (or whoever it is who is usually in charge of the S.A.'s (Supporting Artistes) and then going to the catering van and getting a good plate of food.

It's been quite frosty the last couple of mornings, usually when I take Alfie out for his run (I can't really call it a walk. I might walk, but he runs!). This morning (Sunday) it is sunny but there was ice of the windscreen of the car, so I went out early and ran the engine, which allowed me to put on the heating so as to melt of the ice. It was thawed within a few minutes, enough to have a clear view so I could drive to Shenley for the first service and help set up things up.

I got to the Oaktree Centre,  at around 8.15, home of Shenley Christian Fellowship and helped put out the chairs in the main hall. Not a difficult job. We had a sermon given by Ross, the Pastor, on the subject of 'Excellence.' During the break between services, when tea and coffee are served and a chance is given for conversations with various people, I had a chat with someone who has been through a lot of what I've been through, having a wife who had cancer similar to Carol and was in Willen. I was mentioning to him about my difficulties attempting to find new or possible accommodation and having to make sure the rent fits in with what I'm getting from Housing Benefit. He says he'll come with me to any appointments I have and will help me with my accommodation. I now feel a good deal more positive with the situation knowing I can have this sort of support.

Having left Shenley, I drove to Morrison's. I had originally intended buying something for lunch, but when I arrived in the underground carpark, I changed my mind and decided to go into their cafe and have something to eat, possibly a sandwich or roll and a coffee. I might as well have given up, because on arriving in the cafe there were absolutely no sandwiches in the chiller unit near the till, so I went for a fry-up, or, as it's called on the menu, a 'Big Breakfast.' Nothing wrong with it, intact, when it eventually arrived at my table, a good sized portion of bacon, sausage, baked beans, mushroom and so on, what they usually call a 'Full English' breakfast, and the sort of thing you would get when you arrive on location (as I have done.) whenever I've done any 'Walk-On' television work for the BBC or any television company. It's the first thing you get whenever you get to the location in the early hours of the morning, usually before 6 a.m. But, having heard Ross speaking about 'Excellence,' this wasn't the word I'd use to describe Morrison's cafe this particular lunchtime. Dirty tables which hadn't been wiped clean. Slow service and general lack of anything resembling quality and professionalism.

Foggy Morning

(Saturday)Another foggy start to the day, but I expect the sun will come out during the day. I had intended going out a good deal later than usual, say, just after 8 o'clock, but Alfie wouldn't have it. So we did our usual walk across the park. Spring is definitely making its mark, with no end of daffodils and crocuses showing themselves as well a wide range of blossom, most notably may, or is it called hawthorn? Anyway, the white blossom.

Later. Having been to do some shopping in Sainsbury's, after I'd done a load of washing, I come home and unload the groceries and put it all away, and then watch some television. I've been watching 'The Crown' on Netflix and decide to watch the first part of a documentary series which chronicles the story of the House of Windsor from it's birth a century ago. It's called, very imaginatively 'The Royal House of Windsor.' It draws heavily on documents and other papers kept in the royal archives at Windsor Castle. Very interesting to me because I love history and gives more background to what eventually becomes the framework for the storyline for 'The Crown.' Particularly interesting is the build-up to the Abdication of EdwardVII in 1936. I later watched the second episode as I got really hooked into the first episode. This is the factor which seems to make Netflix so good. You get all the episodes of a show to watch when you feel like it. I don't think I very often watch television 'live,' at the time it is broadcast, or if I do, it's very rare to watch 'live' broadcast television.

I was correct in what I said at the beginning of this post. It has turned out particularly warm and sunny. It certainly seems as if spring as arrived.

Sunday morning. Alfie was being as insistent as usual. He makes sure I know he wants to go out for his routine walk. More like a run, but never mind. He went off on his explorations along the path round the park. Then I heard a sort of knocking sound. I couldn't be sure what it was. It happened several times and now I'm sure it's a woodpecker! It was far too distinctive a sound. If so, its the first time I've ever heard such a sound and I can't believe I heard it in the middle of Milton Keynes and at such an early hour.

It's getting lighter earlier, so we go out earlier, much to Alfie's relief. He becomes like a coiled spring, with the build-up to getting out. It was deceptive, looking a good deal warmer than it was. I usually wear my fleece under my Regatta jacket, which I did as usual, but I didn't wear my gloves. There was a certain amount of ice of the car windscreen which is generally a sign of how cold be has been over night. I don't think it will take too much effort to scrape it off before I drive off to church at 8.40.

Later still. Really quite warm and sunny as I write this at 12.00 midday. I've been to church and then went into Morrison's. Trying to find something to get rid of fleas as Alfie has been scratching a great deal lately. I haven't seen anything (fleas, I mean) but if I put this stuff on him it will at least put paid to anything that might be lurking in his coat. It is quite long and I'm not sure I can see anything. Anyway, I'll give it a go. You can buy something to put in your dog's food, but I think this is a better solution.

Technical Hitch with I.T. at Oncology

Another bright and sunny day. We had to be at oncology at gone 9 o'clock this morning. But as soon as we walked in to the unit, which was completely deserted, we were told by a member of staff that we could expect to be kept waiting as there was a problem with the new computer system which the nurses have to use to input data. It's the same old, same old. Whenever they decide to up-grade computer software, in whatever use it might have, there is invariably a problem. They'd changed passwords, which meant they couldn't get in to it and so there was the inevitable wait. But Carol was seen relatively quickly. A lot of patients coming into the unit to wait. Not a lot you can do when you are due for chemotherapy. With all this going on, it makes you wonder how much the N.H.S. pays out for this sort of thing, and to then have it fail miserably. And relying on a computerised system when it could just as easily be written on paper. Let's hope that the blood test shows enough blood cells for the chemotherapy to continue tomorrow, after the last two attempts didn't show sufficient cells for this to go ahead as planned.

I had put in a repeat prescription for Carol on Tuesday. I rang Lloyds at Sainsbury's. This would give the surgery ample time to sort things out and then allow Lloyds to make up the prescription. Then on Friday evening one of the ladies from Lloyds telephoned to say she'd picked up the prescription but that she could only have one item from the two I'd ordered. Ashfield told her they 'didn't have time' to do the second one. I don't know what to make of that, because Carol was about to run out of this particular tablet. It seems to me that the surgery is being run for the total sake of the staff, not the patients. Anyway, we drove to Beanhill after we'd done with oncology. On enquiring at the reception, Carol did eventually get the missing prescription, but she has to have a doctor's certificate as she's off sick. The receptionist said that 'all today's appointments are taken.' Also, when Carol said she needed the certificate by Wednesday, she was told that she couldn't book an appointment that far in advance. Would it not make patients' lives easier if they did let you book appointments in advance? But I don't get this, because we've managed to book appointments a good month in advance, when the doctor specifically asks you to do so when he needs to see you again for whatever reason. Seems a bit like 'the tail wagging the dog' syndrome. They love to make up rules just to be awkward.

We drove over to Westcroft to do some shopping in Morrison's and to take the prescription into Boots to have it made up.

On arriving home we put washing on, and since it was so warm and sunny it was all put out on the line in the garden. By around 5 o'clock I thought I heard thunder. It did cloud over somewhat and it was this that prompted me to rush out and collect up the by-now dry washing. There was further thunder but it didn't go on to rain. It has been warm and sultry all day, meaning we needed to cool the house so we've had windows open to attempt to cool the house. Not entirely successful, though.

We've got Alfie involved in what zoos call 'enrichment', that is, giving him some sort of activity which stretches him more than just giving him a treat. He has to work for his treats. So we put these treats in hiding places and he has to find them. He doesn't usually have a problem and he uses his nose usually to hunt these bits of food in various locations around the room (and in other parts of the house as he'd beginning to just go to the same places where we've hidden these treats.) 

Eighth Chemotherapy Cycle

A rather cold and overcast day. Some slight rain.

On Saturday Carol had a scan appointment at the hospital. At first, when the letter came, we thought it was to be at the M.R.I. place she'd had an earlier scan at, called In Health, just behind Sainsbury's in Witan Gate. It was as well Carol queried the location, as she rang and was told that it was actually within the hospital campus. I think I had an idea where it was, as I'd walked past on several occasions when Carol had been on Ward 19. The appointment was on Saturday and it meant that her parents would be able to come with us. The appointment was at 2.20, but we got there in plenty of time. Well over an hour in total. She got a second letter, telling her that she'd been given yet another scan appointment, at the same place, for this Wednesday. She queried it, because if her chemotherapy cycle went according to plan, she would have the pump with her she would be given as part of the treatment and it would be possible to have she M.R.I. scan with it in situ. She was correct as it was to be re-booked for 18th April, during the week between chemo treatments and when she didn't have the pump.

On Sunday Carols mum and dad went back to Bournemouth. We went over to see them at the hotel in Newport Pagnall. By now the weather began to change. Rain, although not heavy. We'd had the best weather when we'd visited Waddesdon on Friday.

Today Carol had to be at the oncology suite for a blood test, at the beginning of the seventh chemotherapy cycle. As it was gone 10 when we arrived in the hospital campus, it was quite difficult to find a parking space, but there was one available, fortunately.

In the oncology suite it was clear that there was a shortage of staff, particularly the fact that there was no receptionist. We had to wait quite a while before Carol was signed in. One of the nurses had to do this, which meant she had to leave off another job elsewhere. Quite a lot of patients waiting, coming and going. Carol didn't get taken into the room for her blood test until well past 10.30.

We left and drove to Rooksley because Carol wanted to go to Hobbycraft. We had a look around but couldn't find what she was looking for. We went into Costa in Next and had lattes, really nice cheese and ham toasties and chocolate tiffin. I was ready for something to eat as I was hungry by this time. We then drove over to Westcroft to go into Morrison's, to buy something for our evening meal and for the next couple of days.

Under normal circumstances Carol would have had the bloodiest on a Friday and then have the chemotherapy begin on a Monday. We were expecting the seventh cycle to start tomorrow (Tuesday) but thankfully Carol checked her paperwork to learn that this cycle will begin on Wednesday, so it was as well the M.R.I. scan she had booked was rescheduled. We trust that the bloodtest will allow the seventh chemotherapy cycle to go ahead as planned.

Woefully Awful Easter Telly

It's a Bank Holiday weekend. The weather's awful. If it looks sunny and bright, it might suddenly rain. We'd been shopping. We went over to Boot's at Westcroft as Carol had a prescription that needed making up. We parked and then walked over the carpark to Boot's. Having handed the paperwork over, we were told by the assistant in the pharmacy that it would take around ten minutes, so we went into Morrison's to buy a few items. Having then gone back to Boot's and collected the made-up prescription we returned to the car to drive home. The weather still not decided, so we turned on the television. Not the usual Saturday morning programmes, no doubt because it's a Bank Holiday weekend. Unimaginative scheduling generally, with cooking shows on both sides. James Martin used to be the host/presenter of 'Saturday Kitchen' in BBC1, but has recently decamped to ITV to do virtually the same thing but called 'James Martin's Saturday Morning.' How incredibly original, I don't think. Virtually the same thing as the BBC show, but because it's the commercial rival, it can have sponsorship. I don't dislike him, he's not what I'd call a 'celebrity chef.' Down to earth and all the rest of it (well, he's a Yorkshireman, after all.) And he does plain food, none of that poncey suff certain other 'chefs' get away with on other television shows. But do I sense that he's just gone to ITV because he gets paid a good deal more than he would have done on the good old BBC? It's similar to what happened over the 'Great British Bake Off' when it was revealed that the production company who make it, Love Productions, couldn't get a decent deal with the BBC as they wanted more dosh for making it, so it went to Channel Four. Another story for another day . . . Mind you, having seen some of the Channel Four episodes, it's not much different to how it was on BBC1, without Mary Berry or Mel and Sue, but never mind. Even with advertising, it doesn't seem much different.

The fact is, television just seems to churn out the same old stuff, no real imagination or originality. Too many game shows. Nothing wrong with one or two, things like Countdown, Only Connect or Mastermind. At least they have questions that make you THINK. But to just churn out endless stupid gameshows in the afternoon (Tipping Point, The Chase to name two that run one after the other.) While on BBC1, as the same time as The Chase, there's Pointless. No doubt these shows are cheap to produce. You don't have to pay your contestants (do they get expenses, for example, train fares to reach the studio for recordings? I doubt it somehow.)

Anyway, I digress, as I have a habit of doing. Never mind. On turning on the television this morning, we had to endure endless sofas adverts. What is it about Bank Holiday television? Why do we get a sort of traffic jam of sofa advertising in the run-up to Christmas, New Year, Easter and other Bank Holidays? I've discussed this matter in an earlier blog post. Do people honestly go out and buy new three-piece suites just because there's a holiday period coming up? DFS, SCS, Furniture Village etc etc all have those annoying adverts on again where you are supposed to get a sofa for ridiculously low prices. They're virtually giving them away. How can they do it?

Anyway, we turned on the television this morning, expecting James Martin, when all we got was another cookery show (of a sort) called 'Who's Doing The Dishes.' It's been on for several series, but we seem to have missed it. A load of celebrities have a meal in another celebrity's home. They have no idea who it is, but as each course of the meal is presented to them, and from various clues in the rooms they try to work out who the celebrity it is who cooked the meal. Really trite and awful. A sort of mash-up of 'Through The Keyhole' and 'Come Done With Me.' On this edition the celebrity who was the hostess was Lesley Garrett, the opera singer. I'd heard of hear, obviously, but the guests who had the meal she'd made I'd never heard of. Did it matter? Carol wanted to turn over to another channel as it was so dire, but I was determined to stay with it til the end, as it got worse and worse, just to see how it ended. The so-called celebrities could win £500, if they could guess who their hostess was, if they got it right, that person had to do the washing up. Such an unoriginal idea. It's sad that ITV has come down to producing this sort of stuff. No doubt it cheap and cheerful to make and gets high ratings. Talk of going down-market or merely dumbing down, but this is a good example.

Christmas Holiday

Not a great deal to discuss in this blog post. We're ready for Christmas. Just myself and Carol, as it has been for the past few years. We have our fridge well and truly stocked with food for the festive period. It's just as well as I don't intend going to any of the major supermarkets as they are likely to be crammed with last-minute shoppers. There's this crazy, almost what I'd call a siege mentality that grabs people, the very idea that they're going to run out of sausage rolls, mince pies or wrapping paper, or they've forgotten to buy Great Aunt Ethel or some long-lost relation who just happens to turn up out of the blue and needs  pair of socks or a set of matching oven gloves and egg whisk so they have to rush out and scour the aisles in Morrison's for such an item. The shops will be open again on Boxing Day and most of what has been bought as presents at over-inflated prices will then be sold at half price or less.

So I'm going to leave off blogging for a couple of days at least, so to my loyal followers on here I'll say adieu and see you in a few days time. But do have a super Christmas but don't eat too many mince pies!

Freezing Sunday Morning

Sunday morning I had to scrape ice off the car windscreen. It is a good deal easier with the new Renault as it has a good heating system which melts off any ice fairly rapidly and also I found an ice scraper which came to light when I was tidying the house the other morning. It might have started of freezing, but as the morning progressed the sun came out and it was quite pleasant, but still a chill in the air. The sort of weather where you need a coat or jacket on of some sort.

I woke up in the middle of the night and heard the rain outside. It sounded as if someone had switched on the shower in the bathroom. It went on for some time. I was expecting there to be flooding in the road outside but there didn't seem to be any sign of flooding when I looked in the morning.

I went out to the car the other morning and discovered a laminated notice had appeared near our wheely bin. It was headed 'Woughton Community Council' and stated that it's an offence to put your rubbish out too early and if you are caught, it can be classed as fly-tipping and you'll incur a fine. Oh come on, this is just another way to wring more cash out of people. So, please tell me this, how are we supposed to deal with plastic bin bags of rubbish, when you might not be at home in the morning that the Council dustmen come to collect it and you need to put it out the previous evening? Are you therefore going to become a criminal and given a fine for being efficient and effective with your time? It seems you can't do right by doing the right thing. Just bureaucracy gone mad. There is also another problem with putting your rubbish out in bin bags (black for general refuse and pink for stuff to be recycled.) and that's the problem caused by cats, birds and possibly other wildlife, which can get into the bags and take the remains of chicken bones out and peck around in it. On one occasion I saw a couple of crows who had got into our black bin bags when I'd put the rubbish out one Wednesday morning and stolen the remains of our Sunday chicken and were fighting over the bones in he street. Also, if the bags are torn open (quite easy because they are so flimsy, particularly the pink bags provided by the Council.) and litter is released from the bags and strewn all over the grass at the front of the house and the road. The Council workers seem reluctant to pick it up. Why on earth don't the Council provide us with two wheely bins (currently you can only use the green wheely bin for garden refuse and are supposed to move it to the road-side on refuse-collecting day for the workmen to deal with.) It would be better to have a second larger bin provided so you put all your bin bags, black and pink, which would prevent birds and other wildlife getting into the bags and also mean you could put your rubbish out earlier and therefore not get fined for so-called fly tipping. We're supposed to put our bags of rubbish out on a Wednesday, before 7 a.m. The thing is, some weeks they come early, almost dead on 7.30, but then on other weeks they don't turn up until 2 p.m. or even later. You can't win. So, does the fact that your rubbish is left out for hours and hours on a Wednesday still get classed as 'Fly-tipping?' Just a stupid technicality to class it as that if it's BEFORE 7 a.m. on a Wednesday. Then, why do the pink bags have to be so flimsy? They tear easily and come on a roll. At first you'd be excused if you thought the roll was just a single piece of plastic sheet, but in actual fact it's two layers and you have to separate these layers, a difficult enough job, and then you have to tear off each individual bag. Then, if you're not careful, you can puncture this bag with whatever you place within it, just a sharp piece of plastic or cardboard. The Council delivers a roll of pink recycling bags once a year, but if you run out before the end of the year, you have to go to the Council offices to receive get another roll. The black bags are no longer provided by the Council, so you are expected to buy your own. If it saves the Council money, then I have no problem with this, so I buy them when I'm in Sainsbury's or any other supermarket.

People going totally mad around Milton Keynes on Sunday. For some unaccountable reason Chaffron Way was closed off near the roundabout on Grafton Street, so I had to reroute and cross over towards  Child's Way, when  I was on my way to Shenley Christian Fellowship for the 9.15 service.  Traffic built up along most of the grid roads on the return journey afterwards as  I had to get something for our evening meal, so I decided to go to Morrison's near the railway station. The place piled high with 'bargains' for Black Week (or whatever it's called. Started out as just Friday, but it seems to have leaked into the following week.) Anyway, piles of toys, games, bottles of wine, Bailey's and other items. Shoppers pushing trolleys loaded up with groceries and stuff they thought they needed but probably don't. Took little time to pick up a chicken, vegetables, milk and other essentials and headed towards the checkout. It wasn't too long before I was through this and pushing the trolley back to the car. An idiot walking along with his mobile glued to his hand, not really looking what he was doing, certainly not engaged with the world around him. Got to the car and a child climbing up inside the trolley his mother was pushing. An accident waiting to happen, but I managed to negotiate this and people backing out of their parking spaces and loaded my things into the back of the car. People not really engaging with the world around them, and seemingly more intent on grabbing the latest bargain rather than being in an accident with either another car or people walking about.

Grass-Cutting and Hot Chocolate

I had put off cutting the grass for as long as possible. It was necessary to attack it at some point or other as it was beginning to get very long and if not done soon the mower wasn't going to manage. It's a right performance as you have to dig the mower out of the shed, un-tangle the cable and then run out the power cable from the house through the patio doors and plug it in near the fridge. I did around half of the grass-cutting yesterday morning and managed to complete the job this morning. I am hoping considering the weather and the fact that we will very soon be in November, that this will be the final cutting the grass will require until the Spring.

We went out for a short while. Carol's getting really fed up with being in the house all day, so we went to somewhere we haven't visited before. It's not far, within Milton Keynes and just up Chaffron Way and opposite Westcroft, where Morrison's has a branch. It's called Howe Wood and there's a café there. We've often mentioned it when we've seen the sign from the road but never visited. A real surprise awaited us as we drove into the carpark. The café is in the visitor centre and is called 'The Grumpy Cook.' I can't think why as the staff there are anything but grumpy. In fact I'd go as far as saying they're very pleasant. We ordered hot chocolate with marshmallows and had a large slice of coffee and walnut cake which we shared and then decided we wanted sausage rolls which we took home. They had a problem getting the card reader to work, so we couldn't pay using my debit card. Something about it not connecting but I don't know what is was exactly but we went back and had a second go and this time it worked.

Our neighbour on the other side has been cutting their hedge. It had got somewhat over-grown. She's an elderly lady and couldn't possibly do this work herself. The hedge is high and I imagine, because it's a laurel hedge (well, from looking at it I imagine it is as it has large shiny leaves which look like laurel.) It was certainly out of control and was in definite need of trimming. Her son had got someone in to do a lot of the trimming and there was a great pile of cuttings all over their drive-way (or, at least, their half of the parking space which we share.) Over the past few days our half of the driveway had been taken over by a large metal skip. I imagined it was there to take all the remaining hedge trimmings (the first batch had been removed by the man who did the first 'trim' of the hedge, but I don't know how he disposed of the bits of hedge, probably took it to the tidy-tip in his car.

Marion's son (our neighbour) came round to ask it we'd like our frontage trimmed up, as there a few rather nasty bits of tree that grow up near our front door which need the ocassional trim. I said I'd be pleased for him do it as the bits could go in his skip. The same in the rear garden, but I can cut them down and put them over the fence at the back. If we had a working side-gate at the rear of our house it would be easy enough to bring in a wheely bin and put the stuff in that, but our mean landlord won't pay to have it replaced, so I've no alternative method of removing garden waste other than shove it over the back fence.

The clocks changed this weekend. I can never remember if it's forward or backward. I know someone said that they 'spring forward' in April, which is spring- as a season, so it must be backwards in autumn. I have real problems adjusting my digital watch. It's difficult to get the thing set to an hour backward. I don't like it particularly when the clocks change as we have longer, darker days and I'm not a fan of winter. 

Some Like It Hot

We're currently having a bit of a heatwave. Although I like the weather to be bright and sunny, I'm not over-keen to have the temperature so high it make it difficult to manage your day-to-day things such as merely living, going shopping or whatever. Alfie hasn't been able to settle anywhere in the house and has wandered around in an attempt to find the coolest place to lie. He spent yesterday in and out of the house. The patio door has been open so he can get into the garden, then he was in his bed in the kitchen and then out in the hallway, at the foot of the stairs and eventually settled on the sofa, laying on his back. Poor little dog. He just doesn't know how to deal with extremes of temperature. Having had a heart attack I have to be careful myself when it comes to high temperatures. I was told that I could keep out of the sun and wear a hat when it was hot when I did a coronary rehab course after I had my heart attack in 2006 it was around this time of the year and it was probably just as hot. We did a lot of exercises in the heat and on one particular session I almost collapsed on the floor. The staff where very supportive and helped me recover. I think it was the shock of not only having such a traumatic 'event' (the original heart attack) but the fact that the heat had caused me to feel so unwell. It was then that I was advised to purchase a sun hat and, wherever possible, to keep out of the direct sun. Yesterday I had to drive to Waitrose to buy some things for our evening meal and the car, which had been standing in the sun all morning, was very hot.

We had planned to go to Nuffield Health for a swim yesterday evening. Someone who works with Carol at the Academy had a disaster. She came home to find her house had been burnt in a fire. I'm not entirely sure what happened but I think one of her children had set fire to the kitchen. A great deal of damage so they have to live in a hotel until the insurance company can come up with the cash to repair and replace things. Carol said to this lady, called Gladys, that she would give her some food to give her children (she has four children, apparently) and they are currently living in a hotel which is extremely expensive and she can barely afford food. So we went to Aldi at Westcroft after Carol finished work so we could buy them some basic items. When I think what we went through a few years ago, it only seems right that we do something to help. It was very hot when we got to Westcroft and parked the car. In Aldi I said I was thirsty, due mostly because of the heat, and then Carol said I should go and get some ice-cold drinks from Costa who have a branch near Morrison's. It sounded a good idea so I walked there and ordered iced coffee and caramel drinks. Really nice and cooling and something that I think I'll have again whenever the need arises. Probably not too long if the weather keeps up as it is at the moment.

Returning to the heatwave; when I worked as a Support Worker at the house in Everton, there was an elderly lady living there who, even when it was boiling hot outside, insisted on wearing her thickest, heaviest overcoat.  She was in her late 80's and she was extremely short sighted.We used to often take the residents out and about during the summer months. I think it's what made the job interesting and worth while. We went up to London (I think I might have mentioned this in an earlier blog post) when we visited Westminster Abbey and then London Zoo. We had to make sure the client group were well protected from the sun, and this lady whom I have just mentioned, must have sweltered in her thick winter coat. We not only had to make sure everyone wore hats but we had to provide sun cream. Not so easy when not everyone wanted it applied. You could never persuade  this lady that she would be more comfortable in something thinner or to dispense with the coat all together when it was so hot. Never mind. I suppose it was a sort of 'comfort blanket' which was why she didn't want to go out without it on. Actually persuading her to leave the house in the first place was a real problem, but just mention the magic words 'tea and cake' and she'd be out the door in a flash. I'm not saying she could move fast, because she couldn't poor old love, but any mention of a bun with icing and a cherry on top and she'd relent and go out for the afternoon.

Stating The Obvious- Take 2

So, I come across a couple more of those totally obvious signs or things that are written on the packaging of food products or other items on sale. We had barbecued chicken for our evening meal and within the cooking instructions, in the section on 'ingredients' it said 'may contain bones.' Well, there's a thing! Chicken-pieces that have bones in them! About as obvious as saying about eggs 'will break if dropped,' or on a cup of coffee, 'contains hot liquid,' or the one that makes me laugh when we go to Nuffield Health and go into the swimming pool, where they invariably have those yellow  cones when they're cleaning the floor but usually near the pool with the lovely message 'wet floor.' Well, if it's a swimming pool, there's every likelihood that there might possibly be water, so, with people walking around with wet feet, there's a chance of the floor being- well, wet.

Carol bought a packet of Radox bath salts the other day. (I didn't realise you could still get this product. I was surprised to find it in Morrisons. I thought that Radox was only available in liquid form.) The instructions on how to use was patronising. It tells you to be careful after you've put it in your bath-water, because you might slip getting in. Really? Can't we think for ourselves? As if an idiot wouldn't realise that a bath could be slippery when you stepped in? Who writes this stuff? Are they so obsessed with the idea that you'll sue them that they need to put this sort of stuff on a packet of bath salts? Crazy world we live in.

Another case of stating the obvious. We've bought a new armchair from IKEA. We get it home in a  very large cardboard box which barely fits in the back of the car. It's not too complicated to assemble. I wasn't actually expecting to have to assemble it. I assumed it would be already assembled, but never mind. On unpacking it, there is a very nice label attached to the seat. It reads: 'Carelessness causes fires.' Another case of being blatantly obvious. What percentage of fires are caused by carelessness? Possibility of dropping a lighted match on a piece of furniture must be quite high. Would be classed as carelessness? I'm not sure about that, but why do we need a nice label to inform us of that fact? Keeping someone or other printing these labels and someone else busy attaching them to the odd bit of furniture.

Morrison's Cafe, Terrible Service

Carol and I went swimming at Nuffield Health early this morning. Well, when I say 'early,' I mean just after 9 o'clock. Why make one's life too difficult when it's half-term? It wasn't too busy and I did around 30 lengths of the pool. Not in one session, I might add. I went in the sauna for ten minutes and then the steam room and returned to the pool for a further few lengths.  Why is there's always someone making things look harder than they really are by swimming up and down making a lot of noise and splashing around?  Also, those individuals who go running around the countryside, in the latest gear, shorts, trainers, etc etc. Usually with a miserable expression on their face. We came across a man on the road the other day, appeared from nowhere, off the grass verge, almost into our path in the car. It's a wonder he didn't get run over. Seemed to have no road sense whatsoever. Was he blind or something?  Anyway, back to swimmers:why do people do this? There's always someone out there that has to make more noise than they need to. A bit like people who have big, flashy cars with lots of lights on, rows and rows of things that flash and glow, bull-bars, chromium-plating etc etc. Those cars that are higher up than the average vehicle and probably have darkened windows so you can't see inside. They have to hog the road, take over the central lane on the motorway and come up behind you when you're driving just to make you drive faster. Or, more likely, just to get you to move out of the way so they can have the road to themselves. In the case of these swimmers, it's a real case of 'look at me!' Real narcissistic behaviour. No doubt he'd be the sort of person who has to post about it on Facebook and Twitter. Anyway, I digress.

From Nuffield we drove to Morrison's at Elder Gate. Their newer store. Bigger than the one they have at Westcroft. Before we started our actual shopping we decided we needed a bit of refreshment. Well, after all that splashing about in the pool, it was necessary to recharge and Carol's blood-sugar level was low. We went in the café in Morrison's. Thinking about it now, perhaps it wasn't such a good idea. We stood in the queue for several minutes as it moved exceedingly slowly along. People came to join us from behind, including a mother with a little girl who was deciding what she wanted to eat. We picked up a cereal bar and a chocolate-coated biscuit thing and we picked up to mugs as we wanted lattes which you serve yourself from a machine. Then I arrived at the till. The woman operator had no idea what she was doing, or so it seemed. It couldn't have been too hard to key in our items into the computerised till. She just couldn't do it, for whatever reason. Carol had gone to find a table and sit down and waited for me to pay. I stood patiently while the operator again attempted to operate the till. She just couldn't do it. I almost felt like doing it for her. It was obvious that she didn't know what she was going and I then almost said couldn't she find someone who could? My patience was at a low point but it seemed wrong to say anything and those who were queueing behind me were fidgeting and if it had been myself I think I would have given up and walked out. Anyway, after around ten minutes (!!!) she did managed to complete the transaction and I paid using my Debit card and left with the tray as Carol and already made us lattes on the self-service machine. Not impressed by the whole thing and I think next time we won't  bother with Morrison's café again when we shop there.

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.

Canon Camera Repaired

I had a letter in the post yesterday from Jessops informing me that my Canon digital camera was back from being repaired. We decided not to rush in and collect it yesterday, preferring to go in this morning. The weather was really cold and there was quite  frost, as well as fog. I don't like driving in fog. Just not nice. Carol is the same. She does most of the driving these days. We went up the A5 yesterday, to one of our favourite haunts, just beyond  Weedon, and called Heart of Shires. It must have been a farmyard in a former life, but is now a rather special shopping centre, with some rather pleasant little shops within it's perimeter, including clothes, toys, antiques and gifts of all sorts of descriptions as well as a restaurant, Darlington's, which I imagine must have been the farmhouse, when the site had an agricultural purpose. We had lattes and toasted tea cakes and spent a rather pleasant hour or so browsing the retail outlets. It was a cold day, but the sun was out. The A5 has several similar retail sites along it's route, another being just outside Towcester and yet another further down the A5, which we have visited several times. Also, a couple of garden centres which have a good selection of gardening items such as plants and flowers and from which we occasionally buy our Christmas trees over the past few years. You can drive along the A5 in preference to the M1, which is only a short distance away, but we prefer the A5 (or Watling Street) as the scenery through which it passes it far more interesting. For some reason motorways seem to be designed so you can't always admire the scenery they pass through, and you are expected to drive far too fast and other motorists (but not all) can be very aggressive and self-centred and not respect you. Not quite so bad driving along Watling Street. 

It was foggy as we drove into Milton Keynes centre this morning. We parked in Debenham's multi-storey carpark. We walked through the shopping centre and arrived near Middleton Hall and had coffee in Caffe Nero. As Carol is diabetic she has to have occasional snacks to prevent her blood sugar going too low. We went into Boots to try and get test strips for her blood sugar monitor, but they didn't have them in stock. Quite complicated as there are so many of these devices on the market and all having different systems that aren't interchangeable. By this time it was time to go to Jessops to collect the camera and took out an extended warranty on the Canon so that if it needs repairing over the next few years it will be repaired without need for further payment. Also, bought a spare battery which we put in the camera. Always quite handy to have two batteries when we go out for the day as one can be in the camera and the second one, if fully charged, is always there as back-up should the one in the camera use up it's charge. It only takes two hours to charge, unlike the more traditional rechargeable batteries the Fuji camera uses which take around eight hours for a full charge.

We got back to Debenhams and, as there was a sale on, Carol wanted to have a browse. She saw a rather nice coat and a dress in the Mantaray department downstairs which she bought, along with a lovely silver broach in the form of a dog which looks somewhat like Poppy. Once we'd finished in Debenhams we went back to the car and drove to Sainsbury's. The fog had got a good deal thicker when we drove out of the multi-storey car park and it was even colder and it was as well we weren't driving far.  On the television news we've been hearing of accidents in and around the area, particularly one involving a bus on the M40 near Oxford. A lot of these crashes are because people will simply not slow down in fog. They seem to think they're safe continuing to drive as if it's clear, bright sunshine, but then get caught out when they don't realise they can't see as clearly as they should and so run into vehicles ahead of them that are driving a good deal slower.  In Sainsbury's, whilst looking for a suitable joint of beef for Sunday's roast,  we couldn't see a suitable piece of a size big enough for just the two of us, so we decided to leave and go to Morrison's near the railway station and did our shop there. By the time we'd finished we were well and truly shopped out, having been out for around four hours.

Visit To Brackley

A fine sunny Saturday morning, which meant we didn't want to be stuck indoors. After some consideration as to where we could visit, we decided to visit Brackley, which is where we were heading last weekend when we ended up at Buckingham Garden Centre just as the weather became stormy and we got no further. Brackley is one of those places that we shoot past on the dual-carriageway and seem to ignore. You see it signposted but never seem to visit. I think it would have been one of the places you would have driven through in days past. We are surprised at how much petrol costs at the moment: around 99p a litre, so we filled up at Morrison's service station on the way past. I think everyone else was doing the same when we got there as there was quite a queue of vehicles when we turned in.

A rather attractive door which caught my eye and photographed for no other particular reason in Brackley.

So we drove away from Milton Keynes along Standing Way and eventually to Buckingham and out on the road to Brackley. This is a town we haven't visited before, but I had an idea it would suit us as it is one of the locations used in many of the television antiques shows we watch on television, such as Bargain Hunt and Antiques Road Trip. We managed to park the car just off the main street and walked towards the centre of this attractive town, first visiting a very well-stocked book shop. Try and keep either of us out of such places is quite difficult as we always seem to gravitate towards books and bookshops. We could have spent quite a bit in there, but we resisted the temptation. At least, we know another independent bookshop when we want one. As much as we like Amazon and being able to buy books online, and the ease of finding what you want, nothing really beats being able to browse books in a bricks-and-mortar bookshop. We then went into a branch of Costa, which was virtually opposite the bookshop and then found a rather convenient map of the town in a square outside Costa. We had an idea that there was a large antique centre somewhere in the town (used in Bargain Hunt.) and found it on the map, so we followed the directions on the map and found it wasn't far. It turned out to be a particularly large and very well stocked place and Carol saw and then purchase a rather nice glass rabbit ornament, similar in style to Lalique glass, and for a very reasonable price. On our way back to the car we found a really nice shop which sold all manner of original artwork and had a chat with the young lady who owned it. She told us about Brackley Artisan Market which was coming up on the 3rd April from 10 a.m to 3 p.m. in the market Square and something we might very well come back to visit as it sounded the sort of thing we'd enjoy.

Terribly Temperamental Technology

I have mentioned in an earlier post on here that we have a young lady staying with us on a temporary basis, Kendra, who has come from Canada to be an English teacher at Milton Keynes Academy. She came last Saturday. She has to open a bank account, as she doesn't have a British account and has been to Lloyd's Bank in Central Milton Keynes and had an appointment at 1 p.m. this morning to set the account up. Carol and I did our weekly shop in Morrison's this morning and then came home to unpack. We then took Kendra and left her at the bank as we wanted to visit Staples, the stationary store, giving us time to go there to buy some pens for Carol's work and then drive back to Lloyd's. It didn't appear to take too long and Kendra now has to wait to receive her bank card etc in the post, using our address until she can find more permanent accomodation. She had given us some cash as rent and we wanted to put it in our Nationwide account. So Carol dropped me off outside the shopping centre while I went inside the branch. The door from the street where we could park was not in use, so I had to walk through into the main arcade and enter there. Quite a long way round and it was extremely busy with shoppers. Once inside the branch I found that none of the tills were open and the only way to pay in the cash was through one of their machines. I have used one of these to pay in cheques (a virtually redundant form of payment thes days as most payments from a bank account is made using a debit card with 'chip and PIN.' There were queues at both machines, so I just had to wait in line for other people to use it. One person ahead of me was being given instructions by a member of staff on how to use the machine. Very easy, actually. You don't need your PIN, just put in your debit card and then use the 'touch' screen and follow the instructions. Only thing with a cheque is getting it the right way round in the slot otherwise the machine just spits it out until you get it the correct way round. I suppose it's so the technology can 'read' the cheque, managing to get the amount and your name and bank sort code etc etc and at the end of the procedure copying all the details onto your receipt to prove that you have put cash or a cheque into your account through this form of paying-in.

As I had a bundle of £20 notes, I had to individually insert them into the machine through the slot. It was a painfully slow process and not all the notes would go in correctly and some got 'spat' out by the machine so I had to re-insert them. You had to keep pressing the appropriate 'button' on the screen as the individual notes were put into the machine. There was quite a queue behind me, but there was no way on Earth I could speed the process up any more. It seemed that the machine could go no faster. Anyway, anyone who has read earlier posts on this blog will know very well I have a rather strange relationship with such technology, such as talking lifts, and in particular the moving walkway at Sainsbury's which keeps on telling you to 'hold the handrail and be prepared to push your trolley off the walkway.' So, it's nothing new to have to deal with the idiotic machine in Nationwide. I have to say I'm not over-impressed that they don't have staff on the tills on a Saturday morning. If they will insist having this sort of technology in their branches instead of having humans on tills to take your cash, they could at least make sure it works a good deal faster, because the rate it was taking my cash I think I would have seriously got annoyed and given the horrible machine an almighty punch or kick if I wasn't a patient sort of individual.

When we'd collected Kendra we had to drive over to Great Holm, the next 'grid' over from where we used to live at Crown Hill. She went to view a house which she may possibly be sharing with several other teachers from the Academy. We went in to have a look ourselves and it seemed a very spacious property, although it looked as if the former tenants hadn't made much effort to clean the place when the left. She has to see another property in Oldbrook, which might be better as it will be far closer to work as she doesn't have a car and it would be quite a journey there and back each day if she was to live in Great Holm.