You Couldn't Make It Up!

 Tuesday. 5.45 a.m. Up early, as usual, walking around Oldbrook Green with Alfie. A really dramatic cloud formation over Milton Keynes.

Yesterday, I think I got closer to upgrading my bathroom. Vashti (S.H.O. at Dexter House.) gave me a telephone number to ring, the Community Occupational Health department at Milton Keynes Council. I gave my details and that was the end of the conversation. I was surprised at how quickly I got through. Later that afternoon I got a call from a lady from Millbrook regarding having the bathroom refitted, although I couldn't understand why occupational health would be involved. Anyway, this lady made me an appointment in August to go for a bath test. No, I don't understand either, but if it meant I got the bathroom upgraded, with at least a decent shower, I can use it without stooping because the current arrangement isn't high enough for me. Crazy, but true. Continuing . . . She needed a photo of the bathroom and later, she texted me, so I sent a photo via text, which moved the thing further forward, with details of my height and weight, and she then told me I wouldn't need to visit, and that I could have a wet room rather than a bathroom, meaning I could have a shower unit, which I wanted in the first place, and it would need her manager's approval for the work to do ahead. Al this, running around in circles, when it needn't have to be so complicated. Considering what I have gone through to get this far with my bathroom, you certainly couldn't make it up!

1.30 p.m. I think the Voltarol is beginning to have a definite effect on my lower back pain. I haven't been to Camphill, because of this, but I do miss going, and I'm hoping things will have returned to near enough normal by next Tuesday, so I can go there again. Being stuck in this flat with covid was bad enough, but this new thing makes it even more difficult to put up with.

3.45 p.m. I have upgraded my details to be eligible to vote. I got a letter from the Democratic Service department of Milton Keynes Council and you can go online to a special website 'household response,' and enter two unique security codes and your postcode to make sure your name is on the database. I have done all this, and it's now amended.

Wednesday. 7.50 a.m. There was 'sort-of'' rain when I took Alfie out at around 5.15 this morning. What do I mean? Well, thin and wet dribbles, not a proper fall of rain. But as I write this, the sun is out, and it appears bright and rather pleasant.

The Voltarol is doing its work and I feel a good deal better. Considering what the pain was like only a few days ago, it is a relief to be able to bend, particularly when putting my clothes on, it is certainly better.

1.25 p.m. Around half an hour ago there was a tremendous rainstorm, which lasted all of two minutes. This delayed me taking out Alfie, but it appeared to be only a light rain.

6.35 p.m. I'm watching the BBC sitcom 'The Good Life' on Britbox. I have seen it before, and probably when it was originally broadcast in 1975. It seems to stand the test of time really well. We don't have this sort of show any more. It was produced when there were only three channels, BBC1, BBC2 and ITV.  It made a star of Richard Briars, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington. I must have seen Richard Briars in several Alan Ayckbourn plays, 'Absurd Person Singular' and Penelope Keith in one of 'The Norman Conquests' trilogy. Thinking about Ayckbourn's plays, I did the book for a production of 'Relatively Speaking' when I was A.S.M. at Liverpool Playhouse in the early 1970s. That play (although not that production.) would have been Ayckbourn's first major success, and in the West End, it starred a young Richard Briars. On a further note, I was working on some BBC show, as a walk-on, and one of the runners (or at least, one of the stage crew.) was one of Richard Briar's daughters, although she didn't want to admit to being his daughter.

Thursday. 5.35 a.m. Another relatively mild morning. The Voltarol is working well. The only side effect of using it is I think it's making me feel sick.

Snow. . . More (or less)

Well, perhaps the weather forecasters got things right. It is snowing this morning, as I let Alfie out into the garden at 6.45 this morning. It's not exactly the thick, fluffy feather-like snow we had a couple of weeks ago, but nevertheless, it is snow. We'll just have to wait and see whether it settles.

At the moment (11.45 a.m) it is snowing. It's looking a bit like lots of flying insects. I know that might sound odd, but if you can imagine mosquitoes or those insects you get in the summer, when it's hot. But I doubt this will settle. There's a sort of powdering over things outside, a sort of icing sugar layer. A sprinkling all over the car.

It must say something about the state of television at the moment if the programmes which are old repeats of 40-year-old stuff like 'Fawlty Towers' and 'The Good Life' and 'The Two Ronnies' (which we watched early this morning on GOLD), and are far better than what's on the main channels (BBC1, ITV etc.) They still stand up remarkably well, considering their ages. Not particularly affected by the prevailing P.C. brigade, either. I don't imagine a lot of that old stuff would be produced today because of the somewhat racist material that they have in their scripts, none of it really offensive, but I imagine by today's standards not suitable to be used. 20-year-old 'Dinnerladies' which is being shown as well as a three-part  behind-the-scenes documentary is as funny as I ever remember it being when I first saw it. Written by the brilliant Victoria Wood, who was one of my favourite comedians and now sadly missed. She died far too young. I worked with one of the actresses in it, Thelma Barlow, when I worked as a very young A.S.M. at Liverpool Playhouse in the early 1970's. She's probably best known as playing Mavis Wilton in 'Coronation Street.' A very talented actress who was Shelia in a production of 'Relatively Speaking,'  which I did the book for, alongside Ian McDiarmid, who went on to play the emperor in Star Wars and to running the Alameida Theatre in London. Another play in that season was 'What Every Woman Knows,' in which Thelma Barlow played the central role of Maggie, in a really lovely play written by J.M. Barrie. His plays are rarely performed nowadays, probably because they're not fashionable, and probably because he's best known for 'Peter Pan,' which is a shame because his stuff is so well written. Much in the same way that all the plays of A.A.Milne are never produced today, because he's best known as the author of the 'Winnie-the-Pooh' books. Though, saying that, probably because the plays he wrote just don't appeal to a 21st-century audience.

3.30 p.m. It's become quite windy. The trees beyond our garden fence, which runs along the Redway, are really swaying in the wind.

A little later there was quite a heavy fall of snow. Much larger flakes, but it didn't seem to settle.

I've noticed some strange little things running along the Redway close to Saxon Street when I've driven into Milton Keynes centre on a few occasions. They look a bit like those small fridges you can get to store your cans of beer, but on wheels, with a sort of radio ariel on the back with a little triangular flag on it. I now learn that they are robotic and are intended to help deliver food or other items which you might order on line. I'm not certain how they cope with crossing the road, whether they use the Redways around the town. Do they use G.P.S. or other navigation software to find the delivery address? How reliable are they? I know we're supposed to be getting driverless cars around MK, but hadn't heard a thing about these little things. Not sure Carol would think I was slightly nuts if I told her about them, but she has now seen one so that's O.K. Not been drinking or dreaming. Though, one never knows . . . would be interested to try one out and see how efficient it is at delivering parcels or take-away food. We buy quite a lot from Amazon, so I wonder if they will use them.