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.

Changeable Weather

(Thursday) It was a bit of a shock to wake up this morning and find that the house is really cold. I had to put the central heating on and wear my dressing gown to warm up. 'A cold and frosty start,' according to Carol Kirkwood on BBC Breakfast, as she does the weather forecast as I write this. 'A milder night,' tomorrow she told her viewers.

When I eventually plucked up courage to go out with Alfie I found that it was not only chilly, but there was a vague, light rain falling. I didn't intend making our usual detour of Eaglestone Park and we cut across and did barely half our usual walk. Alfie wasn't bothered, and he shook himself several times because he really hates getting damp. It was good to come back to a warm house.

I'm having to clean under Alfie's eyes. I have to do this every day and was told to do this when he went to the vet's to have the nasty accumulated mess that built up under each of his eyes and had been neglected due to my visits to Carol in hospital and in Willen. I shouldn't really use that as an excuse. I use  damp cotton wool, but he is beginning to get used to it. He's now coming to sit on my knee to do this. He doesn't mind me doing under one eye, but the other has far more of the built-up matter and he growls at me and bares his teeth. I don't think he'd bite me, but he doesn't like me doing this. It does, however, seem to be working, so all the fuss is worth the effort. I just don't want to have to take him back to the vet's, basically, because it costs a fair amount. No N.H.S. for dogs and I don't have pet insurance.

(Friday) A relatively mild morning, with the sun shining brightly.

(Saturday) The weather continues to be mild.

(Sunday) There's a howling wind outside this morning. I have a feeling it's been raining. At any rate, as I was shaving earlier in the bathroom, I could see dribbles of rain coming down the bathroom window, so that might suggest . . . rain?

I got up a good deal later than usual. I'm not going to the 9.15 service at Shenley Christian Fellowship this morning but instead going to the 11.15 service. I'm staying on afterwards fo the Newcomer's Lunch. I've been going there for near enough 2 years and haven't managed to get to one of these, what I'd call 'Introductory' meals, which gives some sort of background to Shenley. Nice to not have to make a meal for myself. As a result of getting up later this morning, Alfie won't be going out for his walk until past 8a.m.

Jut been out with Alfie. The wind still rages. Bitterly cold. I think it's what they call 'bracing.' I have to be careful, having a heart problem. Variations in temperature, either too hot or too cold, can set off an angina attack, so I didn't stay out too long. I don't think Alfie was that bothered. I don't think he's over-keen abut the cold either. I'm not going to risk things so it was better to come back to a warm house.

There is one thing to be said, and that's the fact that the days are beginning to draw out. It's getting lighter earlier and earlier each morning. I don't like winter particularly. I'm not all that fond of things when the clocks change to winter and we have to put up with it getting dark at around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. I'm a morning person and don't like having to go out after dark. Pity really. Carol and I were the same on that matter. We'd go out early and usually be the first to arrive at wherever we went, usually arriving at a National Trust property before everyone else and be the first when they opened their doors.

So, the Duke of Edinburgh has at last apologised to the woman who's car he ran into in Norfolk when he was coming out of a turn near Sandringham.  The Duke said in his letter that he had problems with a 'low sun,' which dazzled him. A letter which he must have been told be had to write. He signed it, but I can't imagine him saying anything to the woman face to face. Mind you, she's made a big issue out of the fact that he hadn't apologised and I bet she got well paid for her story by whichever newspaper it was that ran the story. But the issue is, should a man of his age, regardless of his position as a member of the royal family, and perhaps more importantly, consort of Her Majesty, still be driving? How many 97-year-olds who have had even a slight accident would still be allowed to continue to drive their cars? I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when Her Majesty bought the subject up. 'Philip, dear, I think it's really time you gave up driving that Range Rover.' And why was he driving a good 48 hours after the incident? And, to cap it all, not wearing a seat belt? I wouldn't have wanted to be the police officer who had to tell Philip off for not wearing said seat belt. If we'd done it, we'd have been prosecuted or had several penalty points on our driving license.

 I made good use of my time this morning because I didn't go to the early church service. I've had the washing machine on and it's done and everything now on the clothes driers. It's no good waiting to do such mundane things. I would have most likely have done this later in the week.  And I've read some of my book, 'A Classless Society,' by Alwyn Turner. I suppose I could have hung the washing out on the line in the garden because it's sunny, but I still don't trust that it won't rain. Never mind. At least the job is done. Also, I've managed to write this blog post. Which I haven't been doing regularly for the past month or two if you're a regular reader.

Later. A really good service from 11.15 this morning. There's a lot more who attend and lots of people I don't know, but that's probably a good thing. You can get a bit stale if you don't change things slightly. It was strange coming in at a time I'm normally going out, but the lunch was good, finding out a bit more about the background to S.C.F.

The wind is blowing as strong as ever. It rained during my time at S.C.F. But it has calmed down as I write this (3.15p.m.).

Later still. I've been watching the ITV drama series 'Cleaning Up,'  which stars Sheridan Smith. I tried to download it on my Sky Q box, but when I tried, I got a 'failed' message. I attempted it several times, but still it 'failed.' I then tried to watch through the Fire Stick, went to the ITV Hub app, managed to start watching but when I paused the thing to go to the loo, when I returned to continue watching, the whole thing froze. I tried to find the cause, but failed, until I went onto the Amazon website (the Firestick is part of Amazon.) I was told to unplug the power, replug the thing and then re-install the thing. This appeared to work and I was able to watch this show. I wasn't expecting to get so involved. A really thought-provoking show with believable situations and characters. I got drawn in and then watched the second episode immediately after the first. Cam't wait to see the third episode to find out how things conclude. There are altogether 6 episodes of this drama series.

Problems With Sky

We've been with Sky for a few years now. We originally had Sky when we lived in Crownhill. Then we had to move from that house (full details in an earlier blog post.) to this house. We opted for Freeview. More out of necessity rather than choice, because there was no Sky dish at this address. Neither was there a decent out-door ariel, which you needed if you were to receive a decent signal from Freeview. We had a Freeview set-top box and had an indoor ariel, but the picture quality was very poor. We did an on-line search through a price comparison site in an attempt to find an alternative television provider. We had intended to set up a Virgin media account, but soon discovered that we couldn't have one basically because Virgin, which is a cable company, wasn't available in Milton Keynes, which seemed a bit strange, considering that the place is so modern, you would imagine that it would have been cabled when the place was built. So we didn't have much of a choice but to go with Sky. We also wanted to switch our internet provider as well as having a land-line telephone, so we decided to have all of these services with one provider. Also, with Freeview, even if there was a decent enough signal, their service was (and probably still is) fairly basic, to say the least. You get BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4 and a handful of what can best be called 'cast-off' channels. All very well if you don't want to pay for a subscription. We wanted to be able to watch a wider range of programmes and Sky was beginning to branch out and make it's own shows. As I'm not very interested in sport,  and neither is Carol, if it comes to that, football in particular, there seemed no point in having any of the sports channels at additional cost. We felt we were missing out as there are exclusive channels they have which Freeview and Virgin don't provide. Such as Sky Arts (at that time they had two Arts channels.) Which is why we set up a Sky account and had a Sky + box as well as internet and landline telephone. It makes it simpler if you have all these services from one provider, meaning only one direct debit payment each month.

We upgraded our Sky service to Sky Q fairly recently. We wanted to have a television in our bedroom, so chose to have a multi-screen service, which means we have the main Sky Q box in the lounge. It is connected via wifi (the router is in the hall near the telephone socket.) We bought an HD television just before we got the new Sky contract sorted out. It was a 39 inch Toshiba. But it didn't last long. It failed to work and it seemed we were going to be without television for a while until we could afford a replacement. I still can't believe that set only lasted four years at most. We now have a 43 inch Hitachi and, quite honestly, it's a better set, which, like the old Toshiba, has a built-in DVD player.

So, why have I waffled on for two paragraphs? Where is all this leading? Well, the other day Carol mentioned that she couldn't get some of the channels to work. You'd get a 'no satellite signal' message come up. BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4 and 5 appeared fine, which was odd, because if they worked, why not the Sky subscription channels, such as Sky1, Sky Atlantic and the Sky Arts channel? I eventually rang the sky helpline and the on-line man ran me through some self-help instructions, the usual range of options to re-set and re-boot the Sky Q box, but nothing worked. Those channels would not work. We have booked an appointment to have an engineer come and sort the thing out on Saturday afternoon, so, hopefully, it will be back to normal after then.

I'm intrigued by the automated telephone system Sky has when you ring their helpline. It's voice-activated for a lot of the menu when you first call. I think it might put some people off ringing at all, those who don't like using automated systems. But the voice they use is quite realistic, which is probably why it might be off-putting. But I soon got through to a human and there wasn't the usual long wait you often get with call-centres and then listening to awful music for what seems like hours and hours.

Cliche Soap Misery

I couldn't resist. I had to write something. I said I wouldn't write a blog post over Christmas. But every Christmas it's the same. They can't manage to come up with a happy storyline for EastEnders. The characters can't have a nice, peaceful, happy Christmas. Den handed the divorce papers to Angie on Christmas Day goodness knows how many years ago. Someone has a complete dislike for someone so they have to shoot that 'someone,' (was it one of the Mitchell brothers?) Pauline Fowler breathes her last, falls over in the snow in the middle of Albert Square, all alone. How come it snows exactly on 25th December (when in reality the temperature is spring-like in the 'real world'? Does Albert Square have it's own micro climate?) Why on earth would anyone choose to live in Walford? Does nobody have the common sense to just LEAVE for a better life elsewhere? It makes me wonder why ON EARTH people want to watch soap. Particularly when most are so full of misery and such horrible characters. I reckon it's because they're on at the same time every week, it's familiarity and nothing changes. Just a habit to go on being bored with he same old same. Pity really.

In tonight's episode, Max Branning explains the reason for his behaviour on a 'virus in his 'ed.? Is this a new medical condition? How can you blame your mental state on a virus? Just a weak scriptwriter's excuse. Now, as I watch, Phil Mitchell is threatening to shoot Max with a shotgun, he's lying on the ground and it's pouring with rain. Mind you, it's good BBC stair-rod type rain  (real rain never falls in that shower bath type fashion. Far too regular, and they're using pre-recorded BBC sound effects thunder.) Just one big cliche if ever there was one. No, sorry, I'm not concentrating too hard on what's going on. A great deal of arguing and shouting about something or other. So, this is Christmas television entertainment? Over two 30-minutes instalments? I don't generally watch any television soap. Quite frankly, I have better things to do with my time. There's far better drama on elsewhere. Piles of stuff on catch-up with our SkyQ box.

Can nobody cook a Christmas dinner without burning it, or there being some other disaster in the kitchen? Then, as a result, everyone going to the Vic to have their Christmas dinner. Or going somewhere else in the Square for their meal. Then their being an almighty argument over the turkey and pudding. Probably a lot of stuff being broken, food thrown about, possibly somebody having their face thrust into a plate of food.

Then, the other old stand-by. A long-lost relative arriving at the last moment. A character who hasn't been seen in the Square for years, knocks on the door or someone or other. Or a love-child or a character arriving to stir things up somewhat. Admittedly, this doesn't always happen at Christmas, but it matters not, as it's still a cliche.

I know this is all awful, but I only ever watch EastEnders to see how truly bad it is. There can be no other good reason, and particularly over the Season of Goodwill. Certainly the characters in EastEnders have never heard of 'Goodwill.' 

HD Television Breakdown

Why don't electronics manufacturers make the things they make and sell more robust and reliable? We've had several electronic items breakdown, the most recent our Toshiba HD television. We bought it no more than four years ago, but it began to show signs of not working properly, first with the picture disappearing, but the sound remaining, this happening a couple of times, but eventually the picture would not come back on. It now stands on the desk on our bedroom, and downstairs we have replaced it with the small television we had upstairs and connected to a Sky Mini box, which meant we could watch all that Sky had to offer when we were in bed. This little set is fine for things like t news or the occasional programme we want to see in bed, but the quality isn't up to much, the picture isn't brilliant and the sound is awful. But I suppose that's what you get for your money. I think it was under £100 from Sainsbury's.  The Toshiba was around 35 inches, not the largest model, but it was a reasonable television set, meaning not only that we could connect it to our Sky Q box, but it had enough connectivity to allow us to also have an Amazon Fire stick connected, meaning a lot more variety of what we could watch, a great deal of it free (we have Amazon Prime, meaning we pay £79 a year and get free postage and packing when we buy from Amazon as well as a subscription to Amazon television programmes and films.)All these electronic items are connected via wifi through our Sky router. This unfortunately failed last week but it wasn't actually the router that went wrong, but the socket in the wall which has now been repaired by Openreach who actually own and run the internet network. The set had a built-in DVD player which was great because it meant we didn't have to have a separate player taking up further space as well as all the cables that would have entailed. This set are from Argos, who have a good selection of televisions to choose from

We had a microwave, a Cookworks model. Probably not the top-of-the-range model. It was also a grill, although we never used this facility. It hadn't lasted very well, rusting extremely quickly, the inside particularly. It has hardly been used, as we don't rely on microwaved food, usually cooking with our conventional oven. So recently I had to dispose of the microwave and took it to the tidy-tip in Bleak Hall. I believe in having stuff recycled where possible, so I expect it to be broken up and some if not all of it will be reused in some way or other. This also came from Argos.

The same thing happened to an electronic oven a couple of months ago. It was a Beko and we bought it via Amazon. But it failed because the oven gave up. It wouldn't heat up enough to cook a meal. The hob began to rust badly, so it was necessary for it to be replaced. We bought it via Very, which means we will pay it using our credit account. It was delivered and installed at a cost of I think about £35. They also took the old oven away after it was installed. The new one is a Hotpoint. It also has a ceramic hob. These seem far easier to keep clean and are reasonably reliable. But you still have to keep them wiped as soon as there is a spill or at least use the correct cleaner to keep them working properly.

Do manufacturers make the products they sell deliberately to break down? Do they have to be made of materials that wear out faster than in the past? If they don't (and I can't imagine they'd admit such a thing) it certainly seems that they do. It seems that things have a sort of built-in obsolescence which means that they don't last so that you are more or less impelled to go out and replace them. And as a result, have to spend out more money.  Some things, such as VHS cassette recorders, are now redundant and replaced by things like Sky's digital recorders which don't need tape or discs to record (or Freeview's various set-top boxes which have the facility to record programmes or Virgin's equivalent recorder.) In some ways these machines do mean you don't have all those clunky cassettes lying about the place and all the subsequent bother of having to fast-forward to find any particular scene on a tape as well as the wear-and-tear of these tapes, stretching and generally the annoyance of having tape in a plastic box. The same could be said of audio cassettes, which, in my opinion, were more trouble than they were worth. And don't forget 8-Track cassettes which were also dreadful and it's just as well they got junked.

One redundant system which hasn't survived and that's MiniDisc. I bought myself a micro sound system in around 2000 and it had a MiniDisc player in it. Very good quality machine made by Denon. It is a good system and takes up very little space near the television. But the MiniDisc system never seemed to catch on, presumably a replacement for cassettes. You can record on them, they're compact, (one will sit in the palm of your hand easily) is robust and the sound quality is about the same as a CD. But for some reason they never caught on, no doubt because they couldn't compete with MP3, downloadable from iTunes (and many other sites.) and uploaded onto iPods and other similar players, probably onto mobile phones. No moving parts and a machine will store thousands of tracks. A player is light and small, fits in your pocket and plays through neat little earphones. It's unfortunate that such a brilliant piece of kit as MiniDisc should become redundant, but that is the situation. I don't think the discs are sold anywhere, unless there are large stocks of them in a warehouse somewhere, but I don't suppose they are still manufactured.

These products come with guarantees and warranties (what is the difference between them?) When you buy these relatively expensive items you get the option to buy extended guarantees. I don't know whether they are worth having, because you can pay out a considerable amount of money each month for breakdown cover and it's probably more expensive in the long term (probably several years) and would be cheaper to just buy a new item, such as a television.

Back On-Line

Our broadband and telephone has been down since Sunday. We have Sky, with the satellite television service as well as broadband and landline telephone. The television signal was fine, but for some unaccountable reason the telephone socket disintegrated and as a result I couldn't get the wifi or telephone to connect. I had to use my mobile to ring Sky's helpline and they did a diagnostic test and they decided that it wasn't going to solve anything and that an engineer would have to come out to have a look and hopefully fix the connection. Sky don't actually do the work as the network is provided by Openreach. Without the broadband and wifi operating it meant that the 'catch-up' and other services on the SkyQ box wouldn't work as it works through the internet. I was told an engineer would come out on Wednesday (today) between 1-6 p.m. As it turned out the engineer came at around 8 this morning, much to my surprise, and if he'd come about 15 minutes later I would have been walking to the hospital. But it meant the work was completed within 30 minutes and the internet and telephone were back working perfectly.

It's surprising how much you miss having broadband when it's not there. Not just email, Facebook and Twitter. Incidentally, what is the point of Twitter? I do have an account, and I look it occasionally, but what is the point of it? It's just something that wastes your time. I do sometimes write things on it (is it 'to Twitter? Is it 'to post' on Twitter? I never know.) Are people actually reading what I put on there? There's heaps of advertising, and stuff I never sign up to, or 'Like' on Facebook, but it seems a bit like taking to yourself. Are people that interested in what I post (for want of a better term). I have quite a lot of interests, as you will have discovered if you read this blog on a regular basis. Theatre, literature and history, amongst a few. But do people 'follow' me for any other reason than trying to sell me something, usually stuff I don't care for or show the slightest interest in. It's a form of communication, so-called 'social media.' Passing on information, some of it interesting but, on the whole, most of it just plain pointless and boring. In other words, could be actually live without Twitter? On the whole, probably yes.

Daytime Television. The Good, The Bad and The Dreadful

Over the past few months I have watched a more than average amount of daytime television. Probably because Carol has been off sick from work. I have to admit under different circumstances I wouldn't normally watch so much. When she was at work I might watch Bargain Hunt, or otherwise I can find something on catch-up or recorded on Sky Q from the previous day or from a few days or even weeks. Most of what is shown is, franky, mere trivia, but recently there have been some quite good programmes. Admittedly there are too many make-over shows and programmes about selling houses. Also wall-to-wall gameshows. It seems that all I.T.V. can make and show are things like 'The Chase' (probably the best at the moment), but surely 'Tipping Point' has some of the easiest questions for any gameshow. But it's addictive. Watching that machine moving backwards and forward and waiting with bated breath for the discs to fall in just the right place and then push others fall over and score points that make cash has a sort of hypnotic effect. Perhaps that's what they want to happen; sort of activating so they have a sort of captive audience. Countdown on Channel Four is addictive. At least it's intelligent. I'm fine with the word part, but when it comes to the maths section, I give up. Perhaps it's because you have just 30 seconds to work it out. If it was longer then I might have a chance. I love words and particularly word-origins, so that bit intrigues me.

There are some far better shows on more recently. One is in the afternoon at 3.45 on BBC1 and called 'Money For Nothing.' The premise doesn't sound particularly brilliant, perhaps not on paper, but actually works and keeps you hooked until the end. It starts off with a lady called Sarah Moore, who apparently won the first series of 'The Great Interior Design Challenge.' She visits a tidy-tip at a variety of locations across the country and hunts out people who are disposing of what are at first sight worthless bits of furniture, old chairs, wardrobes, and the most unlikely objects, such as washing machines, old bits of fence and a good deal more, which she takes away. She has, according to the voice-over, done in a sort of tongue-in-cheek style by Arthur Smith, that she has had 'special permission' to ask for and remove these otherwise gone-to-seed items. In other words, you, as a member of the public, cannot take any item from a tidy-tip. Actually I would say, once it's gone in the recycling bins there you can't remove it. Well, legally you can't. She has to select three items and then takes them away to either transform them herself or takes them to designers and makers who revamp them into new bits of furniture or uses part of them to make new items. These she sells on and the profit is returned to the people she took the original item from at the tidy-tip. The results are usually quite stunning. Although a very small minority haven't hit the mark, at least with us. But that is extremely rare.

'A Matter of Life and Debt' is the sort of programme that is fitting the BBC's public service remit to    'inform educate and entertain.' It's on mid-morning on BBC1. It's about credit unions, set up at various towns throughout the United Kingdom as an alternative place for people to save and take out debts so as to avoid taking on loans from loan sharks or pay-day loans which charge outrageously high interest rates. Sometimes it's so people, who have poor credit ratings and would never get a loan from more traditional sources such as high street banks. Some people want cash to buy furniture for their home or have a holiday but a lot of them use the cash to set up a business or to expand an already existing business such as a dog-walking company or hairdresser's.

Watching Doc Martin

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will have discovered that Carol and I enjoy television dramas of a wide variety. We like many of the 'whodunnits' that abound across all the channels, from Father Brown on BBC 1 to Grantchester on ITV to Broadchurch (although that was rather drawn out over three series. The first series was good and the second was just a rehash of the first and the third was reasonable, but all in all it was rather over-egged. Probably just to keep the rating high.) I have mentioned Downton Abbey in earlier posts so there's really no need to rehash what I've already said. The downstairs characters were so much more interesting than the upstairs lot. Nothing further to say on that score.

We're currently watching Doc Martin on catch-up. Fortunately all the past episodes are available through our Sky Q box as a box set. I'm not entirely sure how many series or even how many episodes there have been. We started watching through the Amazon Fire stick, when the first couple of series (seasons to American television audiences) were free. The newer episodes you suddenly had to pay for, which we somewhat objected to, so we stopped watching and then Carol found the later episodes on the ITV Hub through the Sky Q box. And, you don't have to pay for the privilege.

What I in particular enjoy about Doc Martin is that it's so quirky. The central character played by Martin Clunes has so many quirks, particularly his lack of empathy with his patients, his brusque manner with everyone he meets and indeed most of the people he comes into contact with. Then there are the locals, his patient-base, if you like. Most have some weird illness or at least have some odd quirk which makes them interesting. It certainly has a heart and soul which a good deal of modern television drama seems to lack. From the completely incompetent receptionist in Dr Ellingham's surgery to the agorophobic policeman Joe Penhale. You can identify with the characters and they are almost part of the family. Which is why you want to keep on watching. Then there's the location. Portwenn is actually Port Isaac in Cornwall. It looks such an inviting place to visit. I don't expect I'm the only viewer of this show to want to visit and I expect the show hasn't done the real place any harm by attracting visitors and greatly helped the local economy.

There are many television drama series which have managed to use the locations in which they're set to establish character and definite anchor for their storylines and character bases. Look at shows such as 'Inspector Morse,' set in and around Oxford, 'Lovejoy' in and around East Anglia or 'Bergerac' on the Channel Island of Jersey. There are, of course, many more.

Sky Q Box Fixed

I had booked a Sky engineer to visit to sort out the problems with the SkyQ box. He (or, indeed, she. Not to be sexist. I bet they employ female engineers.) was due between 8 and 1 today. One of those annoying time-frames. You don't know quite what to do. You can't go out. No point starting anything, just in case they turn up. I had a text reminding me that they were due, on Saturday morning. You had to text back YES if you still wanted them to come and NO if you wanted to cancel the appointment. I texted YES, mainly because it took so long the other morning to even get through to the Sky helpline. The thought of re-booking an appointment was not on the radar.

The engineer turned up at around 12. I had to scoop up Alfie, because he's likely to get out on the road if the front door is open. He's also a bit strange with anyone in the house he doesn't know. It turned out that the problem was something to do with the dish outside on the wall at the back of the house. This was after the engineer ran a few tests. I don't quite know what it was that caused the problems we've been having, but at the completion of the work, the 'touch' remote now works. Apparently, he told me, when you put new batteries in the thing you have to press the '1' and '2' keys to re-set the thing. Sort of does an initialisation or something, so that it will work with the Sky Q box. Well, at least the thing is working as it should and we shouldn't now have to go through the re-booting process every time we turn on the thing, particularly in the morning when we get up.

Sky Q Box playing Up

We up-graded our Sky package some while ago and have SkyQ. The Sky Q box has a far greater hard-drive capacity. You can record something like 300 hours of material if you are that way inclined. You can also record around 4 programmes on at the same time, which can be useful. Ours came with two remotes, one the more traditional remote, but the second one works with a sort of 'touch' facility and a large central section which works in a similar way to a 'touch pad' on a laptop computer, in the place of a traditional computer mouse. The 'touch' remote ceased functioning a couple of weeks ago. We assumed it must have required new batteries, as all these gadgets require their batteries replacing regularly. Usually AAA sized batteries, which be got in Morrison's a couple of weeks ago when we did our usual weekly shop. I put them in the remote, but the thing still didn't work. The remote hasn't been dropped or damaged in any way, so there's no real reason for it not to work. We've also had problems getting the SkyQ box to start when it's initially turned on, most particularly when we want to see BBC Breakfast first thing in the morning. We have a mini box in our bedroom which feeds the smaller television we bought from Sainsbury's. It's supposed to work via the wifi router in the hall downstairs but it never seems to do that and needs re-booting. You have to turn on the main box in the lounge and then it's meant to 'talk' to the mini box in our bedroom. 

Last Friday I had to go into the main Milton Keynes shopping centre as I needed to go to NatWest. Having some time spare before I went to the bank (as they open at 9.30) I happened to walk past the Sky display and asked the man on duty there about the Sky Q touch remote not working, so he said if I rang the Sky helpline I could order a new one. Well, as we pay a fair amount monthly for our Sky package, which includes telephone, internet and television, it it seemed only fair that we have all our equipment working as it should. I had to look for the telephone number on the Sky website when I got home and then had to endure the wait when I eventually got through, a voice telling me that 'all agents are busy. Your call is important to us. Please hold and one of our agents will speak to you.' Some hope. You have to go through the usual list of numbers and options. 1- Change your package 2- Make a payment 3- Complaints etc etc. A lot of it is done with automated machinery. You put in a key password or voice-activated, speak 'yes' or 'no' to some of the questions. Ingenious, I know, but I'm not over-keen. I gave up after about ten minutes as I really wanted to speak to a human.

I had another go at ringing the Sky helpline. No success at getting through at the next attempt, but I eventually go through, having made it through the menu selection and eventually got to speak to a really lovely lady who knew what she was doing. She took me through the re-booting process a couple of times and I mentioned the fact that the touch remote wasn't working and that I'd tried it with new batteries, but still it didn't work. She had a definite sense of humour. Some of the people who work in call centres, answering the phone and helping people with their queries, are generally a dull set of folk. But she was different, I have to say. I could hear a strange clanking sound in the background. I mentioned it, and she said it was due to a campaign going on regarding Sky Mobile. In the office they were making tin-can phones, the sort of thing children made when I was a child, cocoa tins with string attached and you drew the string tight, and, over a considerable distance, you talked into the tin and could hear one another speak. Crazy thing to do in an office, I thought. But that was going on besides trying to get our SkyQ box sorted as well as the touch remote. It might have something to do with the remote not working which is my the Sky Q box is playing up. It couldn't be fixed there and then, with her giving me instructions, re-booting the thing by turning it off at the wall socket and so on and on. It was getting annoying that it couldn't be fixed. She said that a Sky engineer could come and fix it and made an appointment for next Monday morning. So hopefully, once the engineer has been, things will return to normal. Whether this fixes the touch remote it wasn't clear, but if it doesn't then we'll be given a new one to replace it.

After Christmas and Pre-New Year

Well, Christmas is over. It was on a Sunday this year and it seemed somewhat odd. No services at Milton Keynes Christian Centre. There were a couple of Carol services on Saturday afternoon, Christmas Eve, but it was decided not to have Christmas Day services, I think because they didn't think enough people would attend. We stayed at home and opened our presents. We watched a DVD, something that Carol wanted to see, 'The Secret Life of Pets,' a computer animated movie which was quite enjoyable. We'd been to see 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' on Thursday at the new Odeon cinema at the Milton Keynes Stadium. It's a sort of prequel to the Harry Potter movies and stars Eddie Redmayne. Hugely enjoyable and the special effects are amazing. Carol bought me a book on the art of the film, which I shall read with great pleasure.

Yesterday we visited Whipsnade Zoo as the weather was so mild. We went to a talk on giraffes at the giraffe house which was fascinating and all six of the giraffes, including the youngest were inside the shed where the talk was done, given by one of the keepers. It makes it so much more interesting if you know a bit more on a subject like this. We've visited Whipsnade on quite a few occasions as you will know if you read these blog posts. We had coffee and cake in one of the cafes. As Carol is a Fellow of the Z.S.L. (Zoological Society of London), who operate Whipsnade and London Zoos) and which allows us free access to these places, we also get a discount in their cafes and shops. We got some superb views of some of the animals and this was somewhat frustrating because my Canon camera is currently being repaired, otherwise we would have got some really great photographs to add to our ever-expanding collection.

On Monday we had a free trial session at Nuffield Health. We cancelled our membership of DW quite some time ago and we were eager to find a replacement. A much quieter and far more private health club with a good swimming pool, which is a good deal deeper than the swimming pool at DW, as well as a jacuzzi, sauna and steam room. We even get given towels which means they are always clean and dry. Generally a good deal more pleasant. So we decided we will join at the end of the month. Great to have somewhere to relax and swim every week.

Plenty to watch on television, as there always is over the Christmas period. We watched the Great British Bake Off Christmas special (although I can't say it was particularly special.) I avoided Strictly Come Dancing as I can't stand the audience noise (why on earth do they have to clap along to the music all the time? It's annoying and stupid. Also, the plain nasty comments made by certain members of the judging panel.) It's over hyped in the tabloid press and social media such as Facebook. At least Bake Off is more gentle, it's not full of so-called celebrities and it doesn't have a live audience who are wound up to react accordingly. It's as well we have a Sky Q box as otherwise we wouldn't be able to watch all the decent programmes. You can record at least four shows which are on at the same time as well as catch-up which is such a brilliant idea.

We've just been watching the documentary about Alan Bennet and his diary (the latest instalment called 'Keeping On Keeping On' has just been published and I will have to buy it, but it can wait until it comes out in paperback. I will need to read his earlier instalments so that's quite a lot of reading to get through.)

Eye-Test and Sky Upgrade

Last Friday I had my eyes tested. I haven't had an eye test for quite a while. You're recommended to have this done every two years at the most. It is well over two years. When Carol and I went into the Milton Keynes Central Shopping Centre a few weeks ago we managed to go into the Boot's opticians and booked both of us for eye tests. Carol's is this Friday, after work. I don't mind having my eyes tested, but the only bit I don't like is when they more or less clamp your head into this machine and you have to look at a small green dot of light and then they shoot a jet of air onto your eyeball. It has something to do with detecting pressure of your eyeball which will show up any deficiencies or other. I'm not sure what. But just as the jet of air strikes it's a natural thing to blink and it took several attempts to get the test done. Really don't like it. Probably not as bad as giving blood, but it has to be done. Then, when you go into the main testing room you do a test which shows how good your peripheral  sight is. You have to look directly at a red dot and then they turn on and off white blobs of light and you have to press a button when the lights come on. I passed this with no problems. Anyway, it turns out that my distance vision has improved and officially I shouldn't need to wear glasses to drive. I'm somewhat amazed as I would have expected my sight to have deteriorated as I get older, but apparently not. My left eyes require lenses to adjust my sight for close reading. So, not as bad as expected. I will have to wait until next month to have new glasses made up and I'm having varifocal lenses made so I can see distance and close-up with one pair of glasses. They will cost in the region of £250.

Yesterday we had our Sky television package upgraded to what is called Sky Q. It comes with the latest Sky box, recorder and broadband router, and we also have a television in our bedroom. I bought a small HD television in Sainsbury's the other week and the whole system includes a mini Sky box so you can have all the Sky channels on two sets. A vast improvement on the old Sky+ box and superior picture quality. We had considered putting the set which is in the lounge upstairs and getting a slightly wider screen set to go in the lounge, but on going to look at sets we decided that a bigger set wasn't really required. If it's too big it would just dominate what is a fairly small lounge. Which is why we went for the 20 inch set for the bedroom and left the original 32-inch set where it has always been in the lounge.

A few years ago we decided we wanted to improve our television system. When we moved to this house, which must be around 5-6 years ago, we had Freeview, which comes through a conventional television ariel. We didn't have access to a decent outdoor ariel, so we had to make do with a rather inefficient indoor ariel which sat on top of the television.  The quality of the television picture was not very good as a result.  So, around three years ago, we decided to look at having a new television provider. We imagined we could choose between perhaps two, for example, Virgin and Sky. It turned out that we couldn't have Virgin because that comes through cable and apparently Milton Keynes doesn't have the cable infrastructure. Quite a surprise when you consider that Milton Keynes is such a modern city, no more than 50 years old. I would have imagined that there would have been a cable system in place when the city was built originally, but apparently not. So we had no choice but to get a Sky multichannel package. We also wanted to change our broadband internet  provider, having been TalkTalk customers and not finding them a very good company. Which is why we had Sky providing television, broadband as well as our landline telephone service.