The Leaves Are Falling

 Wednesday. 8.15 a.m. It's my birthday today! I'm not giving away my age. If I asked my mother how old she was, she'd say, 'I'm as old as my tongue, but a little older than my teeth.' I never really understood this as a child, but I do now.

The weather is a bit wet. I think it might be raining as I write this. The digital thermometer currently reads 22ºc.

Thursday. 8.00 p.m. It's a somewhat wet and windy morning. There is a severe weather warning in place. I think it's a matter of 'batten down the hatches'! Probably more like 'prepare to launch the lifeboats!"

The digital thermometer currently reads 21ºc.

Friday. 9.10 a.m. I am waking up a good deal later than usual.

As I write this, the sun is shining, but as it's late October, it is likely to be chilly out.

Saturday. 8.00 a.m. The clocks go back tonight. I hope everyone at church remembers, or else some people will arrive one hour out.

The digital thermometer currently reads 22ºc.

Sunday. 9.20 a.m. It's bright and sunny as I write this. The digital thermometer stuck at 22º

Tuesday. 8.15 a.m. It's sunny, but not particularly warm. The digital thermometer is currently reading 24ºc.

3.45 p.m. Vashti, the S.H.O. here at Dexter House, told me yesterday that there was a bookcase left in one of the flats, because the tenant has moved to a care home. I went to have a look yesterday, and there was also a chest of drawers. The family of the tenant was happy for me to have both items, so this afternoon we have moved these bits of furniture into my flat. The bookcase is now residing in a convenient space behind the television, but it will need a screw put into the wall to prevent it from tipping over. I will have to ask someone at church if they could drill a hole to fix the bookcase. Meanwhile, the chest of drawers is parked in the entrance hall and can eventually be repositioned on the other side of my bed, but there is a considerable amount of stuff in the way, which will need to be removed before the chest of drawers can be moved.

Wednesday. 8.40 a.m. A rather dull and overcast morning here in Milton Keynes. A thin fog lays over the garden as I stood and did some washing up just a moment ago and gazed out. Not exactly inspiring nevertheless.  The digital thermometer currently reads 23ºc.

12.15 p.m. I had an appointment at around 10.30 to have a covid vaccine (I don't want to call it a 'jab' as it is never a jab as such.) I had to drive to Jardine's pharmacy in Benbow Court, in Shenley, just off the main road. I've been there before to have another shot of vaccine, so I knew where to go and park. I went into the chemist shop and had to fill in a form and then sit and wait. I was soon called into the consulting room and the shot didn't take long and it was put into the upper part of my right arm. Done, left and soon back at Dexter House, but for some odd reason I missed the Chaffron Way exit and came back further along Watling Street, although there was a bit of a traffic hold-up, caused by roadworks. There were lots of orange cones in the road, but we've come to expect this around the grid roads in Milton Keynes.

Snow 'n' Ice and Industrial Action

Friday. 8.30 a.m. Yet another bitingly cold morning. My car is iced up, so I've been out to run it and start scraping the ice off the windows. I found a can of de-icer hidden behind the driver's seat but couldn't remove the cap. Once indoors, I managed to remove the cap and will now be able to use the spray to defrost the rest of the windows. I will help set up the playgroup for the last time this year. The scraper has now disappeared and it's annoying as it's useful to remove the ice. It makes it such an easy job.

1.15 p.m. I've been to the Oaktree Centre to help set up the Acorns playgroup. It was partially set up when I arrived and there was to be a Christmas party, well actually two sessions when usually there would be one, starting at 10.00 and the second at around 11.15. Lots of children of pre-school age, bought by parents and grandparents. I think most of them come from around the Shenley area of Milton Keynes. 

Friday. 8.05 a.m. So, here we are once again. The week has come around and it's Friday. The days seem to go past so fast. Hence, my washing is in the machine, and I'm watching  BBC Breakfast on television. It's cold, but there doesn't seem to be any further snow, thankfully. 

We are in the middle of strikes. The NHS has been crippled by industrial action by members of the Royal College of Nursing (strange that a college should have union powers. Do unions have powers? I thought there was legislation bought in when Margaret Thatcher was in government when she enacted legislation regarding striking. Probably something about secondary picketing, but I'm not sure.) I have to say I think nurses do need a pay rise, but the government, and not just this particular government, constantly throws vast amounts of cash at the NHS, so what happens? It would appear nothing. Probably paying for more bureaucrats, pen-pushers and so on, which have virtually no effect on the care of patients. Then, of course, the NHS was virtually closed down during the pandemic and many services were shut down. The entire economy was closed down during lockdowns, and vast pots of money were thrown at people to sit at home and do nothing.  This might explain why we now have rising prices and inflation, but nobody seems to realize that is partially the cause for all this. Politicians blame the war in Ukraine, which might have a part to play, but throwing money around as was done for two years has to be paid for at some point. 

I know full well how nurses work and their devotion to their jobs, having first-hand experience of being in a hospital on the two occasions I've had heart attacks. Not just then, but during the time Carol was diagnosed with cancer and especially the period she was having chemotherapy. The nurses never stopped. They didn't seem to have breaks, or, if they did, I was never aware of them. Totally professional. They are the people that keep the NHS going.

Then there are strikes on the railways. These union members are only going to destroy their own jobs because all this disruption will only put people off using the railway system and eventually their jobs will disappear with automation and other technology.

Finally, Royal Mail is being crippled by even more strikes. This will likely spoil many people's Christmases, due to parcels and cards and other items being delayed. But there are other services available, such as DHL, and Evri, which allow you to send parcels, and probably a good deal cheaper than Royal Mail. How many letters do people send nowadays? I very rarely get letters, but plenty of junk mail, which ends up in the recycling bin. I think most people use email for personal stuff. With a first-class stamp costing almost £1, you can see why people don't use it much. 

Windy City!

Saturday. 11.20 a.m. I have a Nationwide Building Society account. Well, in actual fact I have two, one a current account and the other a savings account. I manage them via the Nationwide website and their app. This morning I wanted to check the balance of the current account, so I went onto the website. But I couldn't get into my account because the customer number wasn't saved. I can usually manage to get further and actually see my balance and check payments in and out, and the basic information is usually saved, meaning I didn't need to input the customer number associated with the account. I don't have it written anywhere, so I had no alternative but to go into the branch in the Milton Keynes central shopping centre. I managed to get the all-important customer number from a nice gentleman in the Nationwide branch and then went to wander around the shopping centre. Well, I had walked all that way in, so there was no point going home until I had achieved something.

Part-way around one side of the shopping centre, it occurred to me I ought to get some one-pound coins. You need one if you go shopping in some supermarkets, to allow you to use a trolley or to park your car, and so I went back to Nationwide and intended to take a £10 note out of the A.T.M. outside the branch. But it had an 'out of order' sign taped to it, so I went back inside to use another machine. With my £10 note clutched in my hand, I went to queue up at the tills, not something I am used to because I usually either use an A.T.M. or the website or app. On getting to a free window, I asked the nice lady behind the counter whether I could have my nice, crisp, clean £10 note changed into one-pound coins. I was, told, not unless I paid it into my account. This seemed somewhat nonsensical, but apparently, you now can merely expect to have your ready cash transformed into coinage without having an account (which I have.) So, this is what I did. She told me it was because they have to have a 'paper trail', which is certainly a new approach to this whole business. I didn't argue, and she went through the process of paying it back into my account, for which I had to sign (!) and then she took £10 of one-pound coins out of her till, put it into a plastic bag, and handed it to me. Job done, but what a load of unnecessary bother, even faff!

Sunday. 12.05 p.m. Due to taking the Piriton, which leave you feeling drowsy, I didn't go to church this morning and watched via Facebook and viewed on the Portal TV gadget which is connected to my Hitachi television set. No problem with the sound, and I could hear everything loud and clear, but the video was very blurry. I don't understand the technology, so I can't say why the picture was so low tech. It is generally fairly good quality. Probably has something to do with the speed of the wi-fi somewhere between Shenley and Oldbrook.

Moving On

Carol's funeral was yesterday (Friday 11th January). It was at the Crownhill Crematorium. I had been concerned about how it would go for the past month. Infact, from the day that Carol passed away. I wasn't sure at one stage how things such as the music would go, who was going to do the eulogy, what hymns to choose, even what catering would have been required at the wake, down to how many people were likely to attend. I had to make all the decisions myself. As it turned out, they were the right ones, thankfully.

As I've mentioned in an earlier post, I went to stay with my daughter Chloe and Steve, her husband, who live in Worcester. I took Alfie with me. But unfortunately, when I was packing up to come home, I forgot one or two items. I have to admit the funeral had been on my mind for the entire time I was there. Alfie's bed, my slippers as well as my shaving kit. I was thinking about the journey home and was eager to get going. Fortunately Chloe bought all these items with her when she and Steve came to the funeral on Friday. Alfie usually sleeps with me on my bed, but sometimes he goes downstairs and sleeps on the sofa. I think it's because Carol spent a lot of time laying on the sofa, usually in great pain. I think that Alfie expects her to come in the house and he spent time with her on the sofa. But now he has his bed back, in the corner near the patio doors in the kitchen, he goes and sleeps there at night. It's really difficult to know what's going on in his little doggy head. He must miss Carol. Why would he not? How do you explain to a dog where their mistress has gone and why they're not coming back? It's difficult enough for me to comprehend, but a dog?

I don't intend just sitting at home dwelling on things. I know that Carol wouldn't expect me to. I went to the men's breakfast at the Oaktree Centre this morning, from 8a.m. We had a beautifully cooked breakfast, sausage, bacon, egg, baked beans, black pudding, the works, or 'Full English' as they call it. Alfie was expecting his usual early morning walk, but, because it was too dark and I had to get to Shenley, he didn't go. I promised him I'd take him when I got home.

Unfortunately there was a problem when I got home. I went to Morrison's on my way home from the men's breakfast. I unloaded the shopping and went to put the key in the front door to open it. But for some reason the key wouldn't open the door. It just would not turn. It's one of those doors which has to be opened by twisting the handle up. I think it's called a 'double lock' or something. It was as if someone had changed the locks when I'd been out, although I knew it wasn't that. I panicked a bit and then had to go next door to get Garry to open the door for me. He came and said it might be something to do with the screws in the lock. I hope that's all it is, because I don't need to not be able to get into the house when I go out.

I managed to sort out the problem with the front door. I used some WD40 on the lock and the various moving parts of the door and it now seems fine. It would appear that that was all it needed. Amazing what a short spray of that product can do, thank goodness! It was worrying me that I would have further problems when I left the house, but I managed to go to church this morning, as I usually do, but I didn't take Alfie out for his usual morning walk through Eaglestone Park, because I wasn't convinced that the front door would behave itself. But, when I came home from church, I put Alfie on his lead and we walked across the park until we came upon two ladies walking there dogs. Alfie was his usual self and went up to the dogs, but they didn't want to be friends. One of the ladies told me that there was a man walking several dogs, not on leads, through the park, and I was somewhat concerned. I didn't ant Alfie to encounter these dogs, just incase he got bitten or at least hurt in some way, so we cut across the park and got to the Redway which runs along the side of Marlborough Street and then came back home along the Redway behind the house and the route I used to use when I walked to the hospital. So, Alfie got his walk, as promised, and I clocked up quite a few steps and got some good exercise.