Goodness Gracious Me!

 Friday. 5.25 a.m. It's bright and early, and I've already taken Alfie out. 

Yesterday, after going to The Oaktree Centre for Bible study and help with packing up Acorns, playgroup (I don't go earlier because it opens earlier than it used to. There are two sessions, and the second one finishes at 12.15.) I drove home and immediately went into the shopping centre to have a browse and go into Costa which is opposite Marks and Spencer. I had a cold drink, caramel (not sure what it's called), cheese and ham toastie and banana and pecan cake.  Very tasty. Then into Waterstone's. Bought two books, one from Anthony Horowitz, 'The Magpie Murders'. It's currently being shown on BBC1 and on 'Britbox', although I haven't watched it. I may once I've read the novel. The other, 'This Sweet Sickness', by Patricia Highsmith. I've read a couple of her novels, 'The Talented Mr Ripley' and 'Strangers on A Train' which was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock. I think her novels are best described as psychological thrillers.

Saturday. 5.05 a.m. Alfie and I were out well before 5 o'clock this morning. He was doing his usual barking when he saw me getting ready to go out. The buildings in the city centre, which are normally seen from Oldbrook Green, were obscured by fog. Completely hidden by grey and gloom, but it was reasonably mild out.

12.20 p.m. My Sky mobile SIM contract will expire in June. I wasn't aware of this. I was under the impression that it was paid for with my iPhone payments, which are paid in instalments. I had an email informing me that this was about to happen and that I could end my contract or continue. I don't want to change to a different provider, so I telephoned the call centre (I was wondering if it should be open this morning, as it's a Saturday. Fortunately, it was. The young man who answered was extremely helpful. He informed me that I hardly use my data allowance, and he advised me to go for a lower allowance, which would reduce my costs considerably. So, I now have 6 GB of data and cost £7 per month. I also learned that my contract, which pays for the iPhone 12 I currently have, expires in June next year, meaning that I can upgrade to a newer model iPhone when the contract ends and the phone is paid off.

Sunday. 7.00 a.m. I have been up since well before 4 o'clock this morning. The reason was that there was a noise somewhere within Dexter House. I have a feeling an ambulance was called because someone fell over in the corridor, but I'm not sure, and I didn't investigate. Because I couldn't sleep, I read a chapter of my current book, 'Les Misérables.'  I did some clearing up in the kitchen and even cleaned the bath! I know, rather odd, but it's cleaner than it's ever been since I moved into the flat.

I took out Alfie at around 5.15, with him barking outside the bathroom door, where I get dressed. As I write this, the sun is shining and it's relatively mild.

2.45 p.m. I have been watching the National Theatre production of 'Much Ado About Nothing' on the National Theatre At Home app (and shown on my Hitachi HD television.) This production, which was originally in repertoire in the Lyttleton Theatre at the National Theatre's South Bank Home, is set in a 1930s hotel and has Katherine Parkinson as Beatrice and John Heffernan as Benedict. There was an element of a 1930s film musical about it, mixed with that of a Marx Brothers film, with mistaken identity and plenty of visual gags. I have also seen the David Tennant/Catherine Tate production of the same play, and, of the two plays, I think they had a far sense of chemistry than in the more recent National Theatre production.

Is It Over And Out?

Monday. 6.00 a.m. So, Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health, has resigned over breaking social distancing regulations that he helped set up. All due because he was caught kissing his aide which was caught on CCTV camera. It wasn't necessarily the kiss that has caused the uproar, but the fact that they were in a clinch and obviously breaking the social distancing regulations. All this makes a mockery of the rules on this and is like rubbing our faces in the dirt, those of us who have gone along with what we've been told, kept strictly to the rules. It's a certain hypocrisy  amount of which is so unbelievable, a case of 'do as I say, but not as I do.' So, it would seem it's definitely 'over and out' for Hancock. The question everyone is asking, was he pushed, or did he jump? 

Well, that's over. Can we now get on with our lives? No, you can't. You've got to be good and do as you're told. Or you'll be arrested and have to pay a fine.

I was surprised that it was raining when we went out at 5.50 a.m. Alfie didn't stay outside too long when he realized it was raining. 

I'm currently watching the recent BBC1 adaptation of 'Les Miserables', the version which was shown over Christmas and New Year 2019. It's adapted by Andrew Davies who has made a successful career out of adaptations for television of classic novels, including the 1995 'Pride and Prejudice', which had Colin Firth as Mr. Darcey in it and has become the definitive version of that novel. Having seen the musical version on stage twice, once in the West End at the Place Theatre and then two years ago when the touring version visited Milton Keynes as well as seeing the 2012 film adaptation as well as reading the Victor Hugo novel (some 1500 pages or so.) I think I know the story very well. This is a more faithful version that has six hours to tell the story and can therefore go a good deal deeper than a 3-hour stage or film musical can possibly manage. 

Tuesday. 6.45 a.m. Another somewhat overcast day. It seemed dry enough when I took out Alfie for his usual walk.

Still in Groundhog Day. Now that Hancock has gone as Health Secretary we have a replacement, Sajid Javid, former Chancellor of The Exchequer. His approach to the pandemic is a good deal less 'Nanny State' and insists that we return to near-enough normality on 19th July. Thank goodness! I just hope that we can at least not have to wear face coverings and social distancing is either entirely removed or somehow relaxed in some way.

Wednesday. 6.00 a.m. I was out with Alfie around 5.30 this morning. Well, if you're awake and you have a very lively Yorkie that's got a need to go out, why not just go for it? Not warm, but still mild and fairly pleasant.

There was a certain amount of noise coming from The Cricketers (well, I presume it was there.) as I did washing up yesterday evening. I think it was because England had just beaten Germany in their game in the Euro football game. I'm not interested in football, as you will have realized if you follow my blog posts. But it's good that there's something positive to give people a lift after near enough eighteen months of lockdown and misery which it's caused. The outside of this pub has been decorated with flags of all nations in celebration of this football competition and certainly adding a touch of colour to the area around Chadwick Drive and Oldbrook Boulevard.

I have a new iPhone 12 arriving sometime today! My contract with Sky Mobile has finished and because Sky had a very good deal on iPhones (other mobiles are available, even if they're not as good as iPhones!) I decided it was too good to miss. I won't be paying much more per month than I am currently with around the same amount of data. I will return the old iPhone 7 back to Sky and get a credit on my new contract and, with the data I have used each month 'rolls over' and can be used to get a discount on the contract. So getting excited about it arriving. Red iPhone 12. Now I have the fun of transferring the SIM card from the old mobile into the new iPhone, which isn't difficult but very fiddly getting that tiny little chip into the little tray that slides out of the side of these mobiles. This is because I will be keeping my phone number as I really don't want to change it. I ordered a case for the new case which had arrived in the post from Amazon. I always get cases for my various gadgets because I want to look after them. My iPad and this MacBook air which this is being written on have their own cases. If you're going to buy expensive gadgets, then it makes sense to me to keep them in good condition.

Cutting Costs

Since my lovely Carol passed away in December, my financial situation has been in meltdown. You may have read in my blog posts about my situation regarding Housing Benefit and Teachers' Pensions as well as more recently Pension Credit and the fact that the D.W.P. had discovered that Carol had paid into a pension when she worked in Bournemouth. Still no response regarding all this but those people for work for these government departments work slowly. (One speed, slow and stop.) But elsewhere I have managed to reduce my outgoings, Anglian Water have cut my bill to an amazing £6 per month and I recently ditched Sky television. I now have a Panasonic Freeview box which does virtually the same as a Sky Q box, including being able to record television programmes as well as having catch-up services such as BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, ITV Hob (is it called ITV Player? I don't know.) as well as the Channel 4 catch-up service. No real difference in picture quality or any loss or anything-quality and, frankly, I don't miss Sky in the slightest, except possibly the amount I paid per month. I am still with their broadband, nothing changed there, and it's around £28 per month, and also I have Sky Mobile, which I set up around 4 months ago, with a brand new iPhone 7 and my monthly bill for that is an amazing £19.50 and they doubled my data usage for the same price, which can't be bad. Also, at the end of each month, any data that isn't used can be saved and either added to the next month's data or can be cashed in for accessories for your mobile, which is one of the reasons I chose to move to Sky Mobile.

The last thing that needed sorting was my car insurance. I knew it was about to need renewing. Then I got a letter in the post marked Swinton Insurance, the company which I have the motor insurance with. Last year's premium was just over £1000 and this year the just under half of that, with a monthly payment of around £48. Which pleases me, as you can imagine.

Then earlier in the month I got a telephone call from SSE, and they can reduce my yearly payment for gas and electricity by around £300. Being on a pay-as-you-go meter system it means you never get behind with a bill and can see from the meters how much you are using, but I would like to have a smart meter because you can see how much power you are using and also pay via an app or on-line rather than having to top up at a shop. But, as you will know if you read my blog posts, that I've had two companies say they can install a smart meter but when they arrive at look in the meter cupboard, they say they can't go ahead because they would need to drill a hole through into the house, basically because the gas meter is on the outside, in the meter cupboard, whilst the electricity meter is on the inside of the house. Why on earth were they not put together in one place? It makes life difficult if the gas runs out in the winter, you have to go outside with the step stool and a torch, especially when it's cold and dark, and it's quite an effort to then put the card in the slot in the meter and go through the process of checking the amount left on the meter etc etc. But the work has to be done by my beloved landlord who doesn't want to spend any money on anything in this house, and that would include dealing with the smart meter.

I have now learned that my current tariff includes what is called Economy 7, which means that the cost of electricity is a good deal cheaper over night, which I never knew. Which means in the long run it would be cheaper to do my washing at night and hopefully save quite a considerable amount on my electricity bill. Goodness knows why I haven't discovered this fact until now I have no idea. 

Wet Weather and Cancelling Sky

The weather has changed, but I'm not sure whether it's for the best or worst.  It's become wet and a good deal colder.

As I sit in my lounge, in my favourite armchair, with the television on and looking out of the window at the garden, the sun is going in and out. It was raining this morning when I went to the Men's Breakfast at church, but by the time I drove away it had stopped.

Enough of that. I have been meaning to cancel my Sky Television subscription. I'm not getting the use of all those channels. I doubt I watch much more than 3-4 hours per day. I don't know what the average length of time most of their customers spend watching their channels. Most probably if you're a sports fan and you have the additional sports channels, which I don't have, you would watch far more. I also have broadband as well as a Sky Mobile package. I wanted to cancel the television element and switch over to Freeview. For obvious reasons with that you don't have a subscription. Not as many channels but if I don't watch so much it made sense to switch over, but I needed a decent ariel which I don't currently have. When we first moved to this house we had a Freeview set-top box and we had to use an indoor ariel, so the picture quality was not very good, which is the reason we set up a Sky subscription. The alternative, Virgin, was out of the question, because their signal comes via cable, which it appeared from investigation wasn't available in Milton Keynes, somewhat surprising when one considers how new the city is. You would assume that Virgin would have installed a cable system, but there isn't one, so Sky was the only choice. There's never been an ariel at this address, which is the reason we had to use an indoor ariel for the Freeview box we had when we first moved into this address. But to receive a half-decent picture it would be necessary to have an outdoor aerial. I looked around on the internet and found several local companies who could do what I required and one company's website had a section on which you could send messages via email. I left a message, along with my telephone number and they rang me this lunchtime and said that someone would come round to do an assessment and give me a quote.

I got a call from the aerial company and they said they could send someone within ten minutes, was I interested? I said I was and the engineer came in a van with a large ladder on top. He came in and had a look at my television and went out to look at the wall outside the lounge. He gave me a quote and then said he could install the ariel immediately, so I agreed, I would like the work done. The next problem was getting his ladders into the house and through to the garden. The only way was through the kitchen window. The aerial had to have a long metal pole attached onto the wall with brackets. I'm surprised how high it was up, compared with those aerials attached to the neighbouring houses.

The engineer checked that there was a signal reaching my television. When you first use Freeview you have to set up the tuner, which is built into my set and the various channels have to be scanned, rather like downloading apps and other software from the internet. I presume they are downloaded from the television transmitter. This took about ten minutes and then the set was up and running. Unlike the Sky Q box, you can't record or watch catch-up services such as BBC iPlayer, so I intend buying a set-top box which has the Freeview channels and connects to the internet via wi-fi. I have quite a few Nectar points as well as Argos vouchers owed me from doing on-line surveys, and, as I write, these are on order and should arrive within a week, so I can go and buy the Panasonic Freeview box I have seen on the Argos website. As Sainsbury's owns Argos and Nectar, I can use the Nectar points and Argos vouchers to pay for part of the cost of the set-top box.

Once I was set up with Freeview and the aerial was working successfully, I then had to ring Sky to give them the news that I was ditching their television service. It wasn't long before I had got through and explaining why I was cancelling the television subscription. I have managed to do a good deal with the rest of the package because I have their broadband, landline and mobile. I have got the broadband down to £28 a month and the mobile data package has increased, in fact double what it was and still the same price as it was for half the amount of data, all for £19.50. How did I manage that? The call-centre tried to get me to continue with the Sky television element, for £45 for 18 months, but, no, I had made my decision to cancel it and go over to Freeview. With a Freeview Play set-top box, which I intend to get, you can have all the catch-up services, such as BBC iPlayer and even Netflix, which I already have an account with, so I don't loose the ability to record and playback all those services and without having to pay a subscription. I think one of the things that annoys me with Sky is the amount of advertising that their programming has. I was under the impression that once you paid a subscription you didn't have to endure endless advertising. At least that's not the case with Netflix. I realise that Sky is a commercial operation, like ITV, and depends on advertising for some of it's income, but they show them so frequently that it's so annoying.

Changing Weather

(Saturday)I received the new sim from Sky this morning. I can't believe how fast it arrived. I was afraid if I attempted to fit it into the new iPhone I would mess things up as I did yesterday with the sim card that come with the phone, so I went next door and Shelly managed to install it into the phone. I have since used the activation code and have also transferred my number from 02, by ringing and obtaining the PAC code from 02 and have gone through the process to transferring the number onto the new iPhone. It's supposed to take two days for the number to go through, so I will probably have to wait until Monday before anyone can phone me on that number on the new phone. It all seemed very simple and straightforward.

It's another really sunny and mild day here in Milton Keynes. On the BBC weather forecast this morning they told us that we're supposed to get violent winds of upwards of 60-70 m.p.h. over the next couple of days, so that should liven things up considerably. They've named the storm Freya. I don't know who gives them the names, and why on earth do they have to have names? Is it so they can be sort of humanised? To have a personality? Do storms have personalities? Whose idea was this in the first place? Just shows how crazy the world has become.

(Sunday) I wouldn't call it sunny and mild this morning. It's not cold, but there's a sort of drizzle falling. Not exactly rain, but some sort of precipitation. My goodness, a long word used at 7.15 on a Sunday morning! We did our usual circuit of Eaglestone Park, even though I would have liked to have left it somewhat later, but Alfie being Alfie, I took him out as usual.

They're still whittling on about Brexit when I turned the television on this morning. So, I immediately turned it off. It's now doing my head in, the indecision of politicians. Not good for the country, making us the laughing-stock of the world. Crazy.

I may go to London on Friday. One of the walk-on agencies I have signed up to online has what they call an 'open casting' session and if you go along they will take your photograph and up-load it onto their website. This company, called Uni-Versal Extras, are quite fussy about the photograph you upload and I uploaded one and it has been accepted. I need a full length photograph, which is quite difficult to take on your own and get right. So, if they do it, it should be so much easier. I think they want these photographs to look professional, so if they do it, at least it will look better than one you do yourself. I have found the email that the details of their address, which took some doing, as it was a few days ago. I have also found where the session is to be and from that I can find the nearest Underground station. If I get a taxi from home to Milton Keynes station that should make life easier and I have an app on my new iPhone which also makes paying easier as it has my debit card details on it so I don't have to find change to pay when I get to my destination. Getting into London is fairly straightforward and if I know which Underground station to get to from Euston, it can't be much trouble to get to the agency address. If I get there early enough I can go into central London and find something to do like visit a museum or art gallery and make a day of it. I haven't been into London for ages, and certainly not since Carol was diagnosed back in August/September 2017 or thereabouts.

I have done plenty of walk-on work over the years, as you will have learnt if you've read earlier posts. But I haven't done any of that sort of work for at least 20 years. I want to get back into that line of work, if only a day or two here and there. It's getting into an agency which is the problem. I signed up with a couple a few years back, going into central London and on another occasion, Birmingham. Quite a lot of effort to get there, but never actually getting used in anything. They 'put your forward' for stuff, but for some reason you never get chosen. In the past I have been contacted by telephone by an agency and they would ask me if I was going to be available on a given day and if I replied that I was, then you'd know you were going to work on that day. None of this crazy being 'put forward.' If you're a walk-on or 'background,' it's not like having a speaking part. You don't have lines, but you need to be able to take direction, to behave in a certain way on set, and be available at short notice. You can be called very early, probably 6 a.m-8 a.m., and to be able to get up in time to get to the location. There's a lot of waiting about and it can be extremely boring but it can be really interesting to see how they make a television drama, be able to watch the camera crew set up lighting and other equipment. This sort of thing takes time and then when you get on the set they will rehearse a scene, perhaps several times and then 'go for a take.' You have to remember your cues, when to begin walking across, for example, and to not knock into the set or equipment, be able to hit your marks and then, if the take isn't perfect, do it all over again.

A Few More Things To Mention

Since Carol's death, the bird feeder which we had set up in the garden has been neglected. She was very keen on wildlife and enjoyed watching the birds that came to feed on the hanging arrangement of different feeders on this metal 'tree.' We enjoyed visiting Whipsnade Zoo, and had membership which meant we could visit as many times as we liked without having to pay entrance costs and later, because she was a science teacher, she became a fellow of the Z.S.L. (Zoological Society of London) . I went there as her guest. Several times Carol did the yearly bird count for the R.S.P.B. and we would spend time watching the different species of birds that would visit the feeder. We had a few problems with squirrels, one in particular actually managed to jump the relatively short distance from the neighbour's shed roof onto the bird feeder, narrowly avoiding implying itself on the rather sharp finial on the top of the feeder. It then proceeded to climb down the metal central pole of the feeder and gain access to the food in several of the hanging baskets which contained nuts. It could be quite a feat of athletic prowess when it hung upside down to get at the nuts in some of the feeding baskets. It even managed to climb up the central pole of the bird feeder which was quite amazing to watch.

Because the bird feeder has been left neglected for so long, I decided to restock the various feeding baskets on the metal structure, some of the baskets had disintegrated due to being left outside in all weather conditions. I went to The Range to stock up on food and bought two new feeding devices. Anyway, the various feeding devices are now full, except one, which needs peanuts which I will have to go out and buy tomorrow at some point.

I have been considering replacing my mobile phone. My current model is an iPhone 5S. It doesn't quite enough memory to put on all the apps I would like, so I decided that I would go for an iPhone 7 next. Carol had one from Sky, which I have since paid off and it is now redundant. With Sky Mobile you pay so much a month but you don't loose the data you have left unused at the end of the month and it rolls over to the next. Also, you have the option at the end of your contract period to trade your old model in for a newer one, so at least you have the latest model with the newest operating system. My old iPhone will not upgrade because Apple is slowly withdrawing older models which can't be upgraded with the latest operating system. I had a phone call from Sky Mobile to give me information about their range of offers, and to let me know that with their tariffs your data rolls over into the next month. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to have a new mobile at that time, but they rang again yesterday and I've set up a new contract with them with an iPhone 7 as my choice of new mobile. As it's £19 a month it seems like a good decision. At present I have an O2 'pay-as-you-go tariff on my old iPhone 5S but at the end of the month I loose what data remains. I also want to keep my telephone number which I will be able to do, transferring from the old to the new mobile. The new iPhone will arrive in via courier this morning some time. I will get a text message to tell me when the parcel is likely to arrive, so I will have to stay in to make sure I receive it. I think this is a good offer, because at present I'm on a pay-as-you-go tariff and it's £10 a month which you have to top-up with a voucher or go on line to pay and it's somewhat annoying and you loose the unused data at the end of each month. So, for £19 a month I get a brand new iPhone and none of the annoying topping-up as well as not loosing the unused data at the end of each month.

Later. I'v now had a text from the courier company, DPD, to inform me that the iPhone will be delivered between 2.30 and 3.30, which means I can at least leave the house to do some shopping.

No birdies as yet visiting the restocked bird feeder in he garden, but I expect they will come sooner rather than later. I think they have to make sure it's safe before taking the plunge.

We've been piloting a project at church, started set up by Worldvision. It's called Matthew 25. It runs for a week and you have to do several things, related to what Jesus says in this scripture. The involve making and eating a meal of beans and rice, going one day only drinking water, sleeping one night on the floor, a day when you only wear what you wore the day before (ie. two days wearing the same clothes.), iterating with someone who has a problem, ie. homelessness, illness or whatever. I have done the different activities, apart from sleeping on the floor. Today I went to Waitrose and outside there was a lady selling The Big Issue. I bought her a coffee (no, sorry, it was free, because I have a My Waitrose card.) and I bought a copy of the magazine. I'm always sorry for these people, standing outside the railway station or the shopping centre. People walk past and ignore them. I don't know how many magazines they manage to sell, but I don't imagine it's many. I don't expect many people stop to talk to them. Anyway, whatever the result, I did make some effort to do this particular activity. I don't actually come across many people who need support in the community, although I often see people who presumably are homeless, outside the shopping centre. I'm not sure what their situation is, but it's difficult to just walk past without being involved with them in some way, even if it's to stop and chat or buy them a sandwich and a cup of coffee or tea.

Later. The new iPhone arrived. A good deal quicker than I had expected. I have been having real problems with installing the SIM card. I had a similar problem with the old iPhone, but with a bit of patience it can be done, but I have had to get Sky to send a new one and I will have to get someone who has far nimbler fingers than me to put it in the little drawer. There's no indication as to which way it's supposed to go in that minuscule drawer, or whether it's upside down or whatever. I had to ring Sky and they're sending out a new one. It should be here in a couple of days. Frustrating, but there's nothing much I can do. If my stepson, Daniel, was here, he'd have no problems doing this. I have got all the apps from my old iPhone transferred to the new phone because they are on the cloud and miraculously moved to the new phone. One thing I don't have to do, because it will work using wifi which is successfully set up on the new iPhone. I have put the new phone back in it's box and it's on the desk upstairs in my bedroom and will remain there until the new SIM card arrives.