Baking Cakes (and the Art of Avoiding Life's Little Frustrations)

Monday. 6.30 a.m. It's Monday, and at 2 o'clock this afternoon there'll be the second Monday Club at the Oaktree Centre. Last week was well attended, not by Shenley Christian Fellowship members, but by several community members who are regular attendees. Plenty of cake and tea. Yesterday, after church, I was asked if I could make cakes for today's session. I have been checking ingredients in my cupboards and setting things up, as I will have to go out and stock up on some ingredients. I will go to Lidl later this morning. I have also printed out a recipe for Victoria sponge cake from Delia Smith's website.

11.00 a.m. I went to Lidl at just after 9 o'clock and stocked up on ingredients as I mentioned above. I really have to organize my kitchen, as there is a definite shortage of space. I had set a lot of it up around 6 o'clock, even before I'd taken Alfie out, but I wasn't going to do the circuit of Oldbrook Green because yesterday I walked at least, 11500 steps and was quite exhausted, but I am attempting to do far more steps. Anyway, as I write, the Victoria Sponge is finished, with raspberry jam as a filling and a sprinkling of icing sugar on top and it's in it's tin, ready to take to the Monday Club just before 2 o'clock. 

Tuesday. 3.05 a.m. Oh, dear! Alfie isn't very well. I thought he needed to go out, so I hurriedly got dressed and we were out on the grass (this was around 10 o'clock last night.) But he didn't do anything, just walking along the grass. We went back indoors and he did a mess. He seems to have the runs. Cleared it up. Not nice. But he'd done another, which I have just cleared up. I have had to change my duvet, due to another accident. I don't know what caused this mishap. I have decided to stay at home and not go to Camphill and sent an email. I feel disappointed, but I really can't leave him on his own all day in the flat.

2.30 p.m. As I have already reported, in above, Alfie hasn't been very well, which meant I didn't go to Camphill this morning, unfortunately. I thought it wasn't such a good idea to leave him on his own. I had a £25 Marks and Spencer voucher to spend, which had been earned from doing online surveys for a company called Maximiles. I wanted to spend it and decided to drive into the Central Shopping Centre. I got to my usual car park in Secklow Gate. I had hoped to pay using the RingoGo app on my iPhone, which I have used on quite a few occasions. It means you don't have to fiddle about with change and use the ticket machines and, if you need extra time to park you don't need to return to your car and can use the app to add your time and pay. But the app wouldn't open and for some unaccountable reason wanted the password to continue. This was somewhat exasperating, so I paid with a £1 coin I had in my pocket for such an eventuality. Having parked and paid I went into the shopping centre, first going to Boots to buy liquid Feroglobin which I have been taking for several months as a supplement. It has 14 minerals and nutrients in it. It's quite difficult to find it on the shelves, and had to ask an assistant to show me where it was. Having paid, I came out into the walkway and went to Nationwide to take out some money from my account and I walked towards NatWest to pay the cash into my account there. This NatWest branch has been there in all the time I have lived in Milton Keynes, but I discovered, much to my disappointment, that it had closed. It was then that I realized that there was a new branch at the other end of the shopping centre, opposite John Lewis and near Middleton Hall.

I crossed over the road from what had been NatWest and re-entered the shopping centre and went into Marks and Spencer, going up on the escalator to the menswear department and bought a set of shortie pyjamas and long pyjama bottoms. Easy and straightforward.

 If you know the shopping centre, you will know it must be a good half mile or so. On arrival outside, I found a machine which would allow me to pay through a slot, provided I used my debit card and my P.I.N. I couldn't get the machine to work, so I went inside the branch. I asked a member of staff whether I could pay the cash into my account via a teller. Yes, upstairs, I was told, although there was a queue. When I arrived upstairs there was indeed a queue, but the cashier/teller wasn't in place. Goodness knows, what was going on? Was it a tea break or something? The queue wasn't moving. I wanted to make a simple payment, that was all. It was at this point I thought to myself 'I'm turning into Victor Meldrew, the character in the sitcom 'One Foot In The Grave', who is constantly being frustrated by life's little upsets and is known for his line 'I don't believe it!'

There were several more ATMs nearby which could be used to pay in cash. I had to ask a bank staff member to help me operate the machine. You can use your card and your P.I.N. and then insert your banknotes through a slot. I then discovered that you can put them in a bundle and don't have to insert the notes individually.

After all the frustrations of A.T.M's and other things, it was time for a break, so I went into Costa on Middleton Hall. The other week I had a really great hot chocolate which had cream and bits of Kit Kat sprinkled on top. But, unfortunately, when I asked at the counter for another, I was told it was a special edition and they no longer sold them. So, I settled for a hot chocolate and cream. Well, why not? The after experiences of the day I think I deserved it.

So, that was my shopping trip! Nothing much else to report here. 

Pandemic Burnout

(Wednesday) Oh  no! Yet another press conference about the pandemic, shown on BBC1 tonight with Boris Johnson leading. I get the impression, right or wrong, that all the questions asked by the journalists are censored and some questions are evaded. You're not allowed to undermine the scientists or go again government guidelines regarding the pandemic. Oh dear! I just think Boris should be a good deal bolder and not listen that idiot Witty who keeps on saying that there'll be x thousands of infections and x thousands of deaths as a result of the covid pandemic when his predictions are inaccurate and produced from computer projections which have been out my umpteen thousands. He should listen also to other scientists who have produced far lower infections. Why on earth can't these press conferences go on the BBC news channel? When they're on BBC1 it means the early evening programmes are scrapped, at least one or two on BBC2. Pointless gets moved to BBC2. If people want to watch them, then go to the BBC news channel. I'm not sure it's not on there as well. Why does it have to be on two channels at the same time?

I listen to Julia Hartley-Brewer on Talk Radio. She's a good journalist and doesn't suffer fools. She's like me in that she doesn't believe the data that the mad scientists feed the government. I'm no sheep and have to do my own research as regards the pandemic. She was grilling some N.H.S. bureaucrat on the fact that hospitals are probably not as busy as they would be in a 'normal' winter. The testing system is flawed in that it gives false negatives, picking up 'dead' coronavirus. I could go on ad infinitum on this issue. As I've already said in the above paragraph, the government should be listening to a wider range of evidence from a wider cross section of research from more scientists before making lockdown decisions.

I had a weird dream last night. Well, nothing usual in that because most dreams, or at least those we remember, are odd. I was in a theatre. Took me back to when I worked in stage management. It was in Leicester. As I was an A.S.M. briefly at the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester in the early 1970s, perhaps not a surprise, but it wasn't clearly like the Phoenix. A theatre where some of the auditorium seats had been removed. I sat at a table with other people and one was an academic of some sort. I'm not sure what I was doing there. Was i part of the stage management team? Or about to be acting in a play? It seemed that it might have been a rehearsal. Some of the seats in the auditorium had been removed and some were facing the wrong way round to the stage. That's about it, but I've had several similar dreams, one where I had gone to Northampton (I think. But it seemed like Northampton.) and had been brought in at the last moment to be an A.S.M. or at least a member of the stage management team. I had no idea what the play was that we were involved in but I have had dreams where I am expected to take over a part, without knowing any lines and standing on stage and trying ro recall my lines. I think this is a typical dream that actors are supposed to have, having to take over a role at short notice and be an understudy for an actor who is ill or otherwise incapacitated. I think it is understandable when actors have worries about forgetting their lines.

I have divested the Christmas tree of it's decorations. I am so pleased with that little tree which I got from Waitrose. Absolutely perfectly for the flat. It hasn't dropped a single needle. My experience of 'real' Christmas trees is that, when you come to deal with them at the end of the festive period, you find the floor covered in needles. I have kept it watered during the Christmas period which might be the reason it has kept it's needles. After all, a real Christmas tree is like a house plant which needs care, particularly watering. 

The little Christmas tree is now outside in the community garden. I have given it another water, I hope it doesn't get lonely. It's going to be another frosty night and it won't like getting cold.

I got a text message from Nationwide to tell me that there wasn't sufficient cash in my account to cover a couple of Direct Debits which go out today. My only option was to go into the city centre and take out money from my second account, the NatWest and transfer it into the Nationwide. This had to be done by 2.30. I had around an hour and a half to accomplish this mission. I drove in and parked near the Point and rushed into the shopping centre. The carpark was virtually empty and when I reached the Nationwide I had to wait to enter as they're not letting too many people in and they have a one-way system due to the pandemic. I managed to take out enough to cover the Nationwide payment, from my NatWest account and I then had to wrestle with the cash machine. You can only pay in cash one note at a time and the thing was being difficult. Several of the notes I managed to insert in the slot were disgorged, but eventually I managed to get them all into the machine, but it was a tortuously slow procendure. It was as I walked back towards the car that I realised that I hadn't paid my parking ticket. I was in such a hurry that I clean forgot.

Very few of the shops were open. I think W.H.Smith and Boots were open, along with banks. Probably they are what they call 'essential.' 

I got back to the car to find a host of crows either sitting on the cars or all over the ground, like a swarm of flies. Very reminiscent to the Alfred Hitchcock film 'The Birds.' A couple were sitting on my car. Not the sort of bird you'd want to have an argument with, considering the look they give you with their beady eyes and their sharp and pointed beaks!

(Later) Boris is given ANOTHER press conference! How much more of this can a person endure? It's getting so tiresome. I know we have to be told, but endless ramblings and those miserable faced scientists and their graphs. Just turn off the television or watch another channel, which is exactly what I did. I put 'Pointless' on, which was on BBC2.

Waitrose Café, Service Slipping

I should have had a pension payment in my bank account this weekend. I have a fairly good idea when it should be paid, working backwards from the last payment by going on-line to my Nationwide account and it should be paid every four weeks. But I had checked on Friday and nothing and then Saturday, so I had to have a final look this morning, fairly early, before I took Alfie out for his walk. But, again, nothing. This has caused some stress, as you can imagine, what with bills to pay and the added stress of clearing out this house so I can move to the flat. Fortunately I have managed to save sufficient money in a savings account with Metro, which was intended for he purpose of buying a Yorkshire Terrier puppy which would eventually replace Alfie, not that I see him popping his clogs for a couple of years, hopefully. Also, I needed to have sufficient funds in my other account which is with NatWest and I knew I would have to cover that with a transfer from the Metro bank, but the account is only operational by taking your cash into a branch and having them transfer money from one to another in branch. Annoying that I have to do this, but there is no alternative and thinking about it, the rent payment will be the last to the landlord of this house before I vacate the property.

After church I came home to pick up the bank details necessary to do the transfer as describe above and then to drive to Oakgrove, a relatively short drive down Chaffron Way where there was a branch of the Metro Bank, fortunately open on a Sunday (one of the advantage of being with this bank is they open when the customer needs them and not necessarily to fit round their staff, which is how any business should be run. It's surprising how busy it gets there, what with cars coming into the carpark, which is down quite a steep incline and you have to be careful as you get to the bottom of the slope as there are barriers in the way which I imagine are there for just this purpose. Also, the Metro Bank was ram-raided some months ago and they've put bollards in front of the unit which I imagine are to prevent, or at least deter, further ram-raiding. Whether they would stop this sort of criminal activity is doubtful, because if criminals are determined enough they will just smash the wall of a building and then use whatever it takes to remove the A.T.M. (hole in the wall machine.) with a fork-lift truck or whatever. Anyway, once parked I walked to the bank and the business was done. They recognise me apparently because as soon as you give your details, there is a digital photograph of me on their computer screen to prove my identity. All done and dusted and then a walk along the pavement to Waitrose and a snack in their café. I ordered a hot chocolate with marshmallows, cream and sprinkles for a change from the standard latte as well as a cheese and ham toastie and something rather tasty called a 'Yum-Yum. Is this confection named after a character in the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, 'The Mikado'? I have no idea, but it's worth a try speculating.

I seem to have stood in he queue for some time before a member of staff took my order. It wasn't that busy and when I eventually got my drink and Yum Yum I had handed over the cold ham and cheese toastie to the girl behind the counter for it to be heated, and then took my tray, together with the number 12 which was put on a stand, which would be placed on my table so when the toastie was ready the member of staff who bought it out would find me. I sat at the far end of the café and waited for the toastie to arrive. I drank what was a really lovely hot chocolate (with all the trimmings) and waited  . . . and waited . . . and waited, what seemed forever. It must have been 20 minutes later . . . that I went to the counter to tell the girl on the till that I hadn't yet received my toastie and said, under my breath, but someone must have heard me, that I would knock three stars off my Trip Advisor review when I wrote it (actually not done as I write this.) I returned to my table and waited . . . and waited. The toastie eventually arrived, by which time I had more or less lost interest in eating it, although I did eat it and then the rather delicious toastie. Then a member of staff arrived, and asked me if I would like a drink? I said, 'provided I didn't have to pay,' and I got a bottled apple juice, which I drank and it was tasty. I think this was offered as a sort of apology for the length of time I had waited. Waitrose, if they're going to have the café open on a Sunday, should sort the issue of staff, because there are obviously not enough to cover for the amount of customers they have on a Sunday. It can't be too difficult to recruit staff, or is it? Are some people just not going to lower themselves to do catering work, and on a Sunday? But that's not an excuse. They needed at least two more staff members behind the counter, one on the till, probably one making hot drinks and another, taking orders from customers further back in the queue if it's busy. That's how they seem to run the ship if you go to other similar eating establishments, such as Starbucks or Costa, so why not here at Waitrose? They have a good reputation and the food and drink is good, if a bit pricey, but that's what you expect in a John Lewis or Waitrose store. This business has quite a good reputation for service and quality, but this won't do it a lot of good. They will loose customers because as soon as such things a service slips people go elsewhere and it takes a long time to build that reputation back up again.

A Sunny Day (or not)

It's bright and sunny this morning (Thursday). Just hope it doesn't pour with rain after I've put washing out on the line. It's quite gusty so the washing should dry quickly. The garden still needs lots doing to it, cutting back the brambles at the bottom of the garden. They are incredibly tough to cut through and really cut into your hands with their thorns, so I use gloves.I've put the bits I've managed to cut into our one and only wheely bin. It's not really big enough for all the garden waste I'm putting into it We only get the wheely bins emptied once every two weeks which is making things more difficult, slow and steady. We don't have a side gate which we could use to take the bin round to the front of the house.  I have to take the bin through the house and out through the front door. Not exactly convenient, but how else is it to be taken out for the bin men? What gate we have was sealed up when the fence was repaired. It's really up to our landlord to spend out and have a new gate installed, but he's not going to spend out on anything he doesn't want to. So the bin remains in the garden (Garden? What garden?) 

We went to the Council offices yesterday as we're going to have to apply for benefits. There's really no choice as Carol has been off work for almost a year. I managed to park outside the offices, not too difficult, and payed the £2 required for an hour. Going in to the reception area, it's all changed since we last were here, must be at least 8-10 years ago. All bright paintwork and large photographs of places in Milton Keynes. A bit like the set for a breakfast television show. Low desks in sort of pastel shades. The lady on the reception desk (not a desk. More like a tiny IKEA coffee table. Nowhere for her to sit.) standing and welcoming people as they came in. Took our request for a form to start the application process. They don't have paper forms, it would seem. To get a reduction of Council Tax we need a reference number. We are given a ticket with a number on it and have to wait in the waiting area. Lots of people waiting and coming and going. Our number shows up on the digital screens, in the 'Triage' section. Other people seem to get called by the computerised voice, one in particular called several times, but no takers. We are eventually called by the female computer voice and we go to 'Desk Number 2.' Each desk has a red digital read-out. When we get there we have to prove our identity so I have to go back to the car to get my wallet and return to show my Driving Licence as well as Carol's. Which means the lady on the desk can get into the data-bank and she gives us the reference number we require on a small slip of paper which I store in my wallet for later use.

We return to the reception area where there is a row of three computers on desks and start the process of making our application. The application goes well enough, but by 2 o'clock I realise I'm going to have to put another £2 worth of parking ticket on the car, but, as I have no change, I go to the NatWest next door (fortunately our bank.) and take out £10 and then go inside to get change from one of the tellers. I then return to the car and pay the required sum into the machine and put the ticket inside the car's windscreen and the return to Carol who is continuing to fill in the on-line application.

It seems so obvious that the Council are attempting to run the benefits department with very few staff. The lady on the reception seemed to be doing the job of at least three people, attempting to help those with their on-line application as well as signing in new people as they entered reception. Usually they would have several people behind a reception desk. Also, no doubt they are trying to cut down on paper if you apply on line. Which a good idea because if you fill in a paper form that information has to be transferred onto a computer at some stage in which case another team of people would be required, so to have that information fed directly onto a computer system must surely save money in not having to employ more staff to do the job.

All the effort to do the application at the Council offices was a waste of time because there was so much information we needed which we didn't have with us. So we went home and did the application on our own laptop.

We went to the oncology department at around 10.45. The actual time we were supposed to be there was 11.20, but Carol wasn't seen until 11.35. She was having the pump removed and this was the last time, after the completion of the 12th chemotherapy cycle. 

Eerie Birds, Building Sheds and Banks

I had to go into the main Milton Keynes shopping centre this morning. I was going to NatWest to close down some direct debits we had for things we no longer needed. It's always a good idea to review such things in an attempt to save some cash. I had parked the car near The Point and as I walked towards the shopping centre I could not help but notice a large amount of big black crows sitting in the trees. I'm not one to take notice of omens, but it was similar to the famous Hitchcock film 'The Birds.' I suppose they are used in film to present something ominous about to happen and are a bit of a cliché in that respect, but for all that they are rather scary.

I was far to early to get into Nationwide building society and I had to sit outside as the shutters were down. A good excuse to check my emails on my new iPhone. I wasn't in there too long and sorted out some direct debits on that account and then had to cross the road to visit the NatWest bank which is under the Milton Keynes Council offices. Unfortunately they weren't due to open until 10.00, so I had to go away and waste a good 20 minutes in the shopping centre. A lot of new work going on in the centre, it's being up-graded with new entrances and given a real smart look. I suppose it must be a good 40 years old and was certainly beginning to look it's age. 

The toilets ar being up-graded. Not such a bad thing I suppose. Then I walked back to the NatWest and found them open, but I then had to queue up for a good 10 minutes. The door squeaked horribly and it was annoying as I stood and waited. You'd think they could get an oil can out and give it a squirt, just to stop the irritating noise, but never mind. The place is gradually being taken over by automation. You can take money out via 'hole-in-the-wall- machines, or A.T.M.'s, but you can also pay money in, cheques as well as notes. So the job of tellers must be on the line. I suppose it gives you an alternative to standing in line to pay in by the traditional method, and they aren't that difficult to use. They can even give a receipt, a copy of a cheque if you pay in that way. Both my banks have them now. How on earth they manage to read the cheque without you having to key in the amount is beyond me. Just goes to show how clever technology is becoming.

Our dearly-beloved neighbour is making hammering noises once again. Over the last weekend we had to contend with him working on his new shed. Well, I call it 'new' in the sense that it's new to the garden next door, but from viewing it from our bedroom window and slight glimpses when I've looked over the fence, it looks ancient. I can't for the life of me think where he got it. Someone else no doubt wanted to be rid of it and he took it off them. Then I'm wondering, how on earth did he get it here? Was it taken apart and then re-assembled in next door's garden? That can be the only answer, but we never saw any of this work. But now he's nailing wood all over the thing as the edge of the roof was somewhat rotten, or at least that's how it looked to me. The whole of their garden looks for all the world like a building site, with bricks, wood and other material stacked up all over the place. No doubt Shelley (Gary's wife) got sick to death of all his tools and bits and pieces and told him he needed a shed to store it all. Which is my only suggestion. Unfortunately it is us who have to contend with the hammering and other extraneous noises as he builds the confounded thing.

Writing and Raining

The day began wet and over-cast. I could hear the rain rattling on the windows in the night. There is a fresh water-feature just outside the patio doors from the kitchen when I let the dogs out earlier ( meaning a puddle, which I didn't want either dog to get in and create paw-print all over the kitchen floor.)  and quite a torrent rushing down the road outside the house at the front, as seen from the window when I was washing up at the sink.

I've been doing quite a bit of writing this morning, as well as sorting out some of my earlier writing. I have been putting most of it into a ring-binder, but I had to buy a second one because the first was chocker-block full. I had to number the pages and use different coloured pens to make sure they don't get muddled up. I have got stuff in my pad of paper which I had forgotten I'd written and I'm quite pleased how it reads and will have to use for future stories.

I put a cheque in our bank account last week. I took it into the NatWest branch in the centre of Milton Keynes. How come it used to take no more than three working days for a cheque to clear? I have been to an A.T.M. to check to see whether the cash had cleared, and it still hasn't. I can't see why it takes longer for a cheque to clear, rather than shorter. Surely, with modern technology, computers and so on, it would take less time. What's the excuse? We rarely get cheques, and most things are paid through B.A.C.S., so any payment goes directly into our bank account, so it seems quite strange for it to take such a long time. Admittedly, there was a weekend in the middle, but that's still no reason for it to take so long to clear.