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.

Wild and Windy

Wednesday. 7.20 a.m. It's a wild and windy morning. Just been out with Alfie, but we didn't hang around, because we were both getting wet. 

1.20 p.m. I have been to have my covid vaccine. I had a text message telling me the vaccine was available and that I could book an appointment through the text, which is what I did and the appointment was at Jardine's chemist in Shenley Church End. The vaccine used was the Astra-Zenica vaccine and went into my right arm, because the flu vaccine, which I had on Saturday, went into my left arm.

Thursday. 7.40 a.m. I will, hopefully, drive to Worcester tomorrow morning,  and come back on Monday morning, so I won't be writing any posts during that time. I say, hopefully, because of Storm Ciårn, which, as I write, is raging across the south of England, mostly along the coast. I am keeping an eye on the situation and it would appear Milton Keynes and Worcester are not affected, although we are likely to get rain and wind, but not the strength they have been having in the Channel Islands., up to 92 miles per hour.

A little discomfort in the area where the vaccine injection was in my right arm, after the covid vaccine, but nothing too bad, thankfully.

Friday. 10.35 a.m. I'm all packed and ready to drive off to Worcester. I've been to put diesel in the car and now have a tank full, so I should be able to get to Worcester and come home without having to refill. 

The weather is calm! Yesterday there was quite a strong wind, but not as strong as the wind on the south coast of England or the Channel Islands. If I couldn't go today, I would have gone tomorrow, Saturday, morning.

Only one problem. As usual on a Friday, I did my washing. All were put in the washing machine at around 7.40, left to get on with the job and then came back an hour later to put it all in the tumble drier. I went back to take the dried clothes out and found that the door of the drier wouldn't open, so I now have a load of clothes locked inside and there's no way to open the door until someone from Mears comes to deal with the matter.

Monday. 1.00 p.m. I'm back from Worcester. I had a lovely time with Chloe and Steve and the grandchildren, George, Eddie, Arthur and Rosie. It got quite noisy at the time, but that's young children. 

I left Milton Keynes around 2.15, having dropped Alfie off with Irene, who was looking after him for the weekend. The journey was trouble free and I got to the M40 in well under an hour. Having the SatNav made things easier because I don't like having to change between the three motorways, M40, M42 and M5, but it all went smoothly.

I arrived outside Steve and Chloe's house at about 4.10. I rang the doorbell and Steve came to the door, He works at home and Chloe came back around 40 minutes later, having left work and having collected the children from their various activities and school.

The next day, Saturday, it was raining, and, rather than spend the morning stuck in the house, we went with the children to the centre of Worcester, to visit the cathedral. A truly awesome place, the cathedral, No end of history, which interests me, which included an archaeological find made some years ago, of a shoe (or, maybe a boot) which was discovered when some work was done in and around the cathedral precincts, said to be worn by a 15th-century pilgrim, whose headless skeleton was unearthed in 1986. This is on display in the cathedral crypt.

In the afternoon Steve's parents and two lady relatives visited and later we went for a walk across the park, by which time it was beginning to get dark, and a mist began to rise. We had a meal together, the first course being lasagne, which Chloe had made and as a pudding, Steve had made sticky toffee pudding, really delicious and I want the recipe. As good as you would expect from a restaurant.

Sunday was bright and sunny, although it clouded over later in the afternoon. I sat outside in the garden as Steve, Chloe and the children swept up some leaves which covered the lawn.

The following morning, Monday, I woke early and got ready to drive back to Milton Keynes. I waited for everyone to leave the house and had already said my 'goodbyes' and left around 8.25. The journey home was relatively straightforward, except for a hold-up around mid-way. I don't know what caused it, but the traffic slowed to around walking pace, but at least it didn't stand still. I got back to Milton Keynes around 10 a.m. and went straight to the house of the lady who had been looking after Alfie. It was a possibility that she would be home, although I had said I'd be there at 11, so I went to Dexter House to unload my stuff and went back at 11 and she was at home so I collected Alfie and went back to Dexter House.

Another Fun-Filled Week!

Do you sense a certain amount of irony in the title I chose for this blog post? Well, probably. As I put finger to keypad, or keyboard or whatever you want to call it, it's Sunday morning, 9.37. I went out with Alfie as usual. Quite nippy, and I assume there had been a sharp frost in the night. Walking along the pavement leading to Oldbrook Green, there is the usual patch of water. I can't think where it comes from. I reckon it's a leak from somewhere or other. Further down I nearly slipped over as there's a layer of ice, but you have to watch where you put your feet and I really don't fancy falling over. I will have to be more careful.

I  have being doing some more writing! Horray! I have just been lazy recently and really, honestly, I have had no excuse to NOT get on with any of it. Having a story arc or at least a set of notes which I follow, it's relatively easy. Just needed the inspiration to merely GET ON WITH IT! I'm a little surprised how things develop, once I get going. It needs heavy editing, but at least I'm working on it. It's not until I actually get writing that I find it often goes off in an entirely new direction and even new characters turn up and they can take things off in another direction. A bit like when you are on a car journey and you suddenly have to take a different route, probably because you might get stuck behind a slow moving vehicle and turn off the main road because it's probably quicker and as a result you discover something you wouldn't otherwise have come across, taking you into unexplored territory.

Another project of mine is to record stuff to upload onto Soundcloud. I'm using Garageband, the sound and music suite on my MacBook. I'll be honest and just say that I haven't really looked at this bit of kit and the MacBook is well over five years old. I can do most things on my laptop, but never really considered using this. I think digital recording is yet another area that's new to me. I have worked with reel-to-reel tape in the past and, as part of my job when I worked in stage management, I had to put together sound tapes for the plays I worked on and used reel-to-reel tape recorders (this was some 45 years ago, so digital wasn't around then. Recording wot digital is an entirely different ball game, no physical tape and it's far more sophisticated. The recently purchased microphone is now coming into its own. I is semi-professional and of fairly good quality and gives as good a result as I could have hoped.

(Monday)  A new month begins. It's the 1st of February.  The roll-out of the covid vaccine continues. Let's hope that it means that things can get back to some sort of normal, if that's possible. I really hope so. 

It's a mild morning. Thank goodness there's no ice to slip on as we walk along the pavement towards Oldbrook Green. But there is a fog, which hangs over the centre of Milton Keynes which you can see from Oldbrook Green. 

(Tuesday) Bedford Hospital is in the news because Sir Tom Moore, the amazing gentleman who did all that walking in the garden of his home for his 100th birthday and raised something like £30 million for NHS charities, has been admitted to hospital with coronavirus. This is where I was in May 2006 when I had my first heart attack. 

A mild morning.

(Wednesday) Sad to learn that Sir Tom has died of coronavirus. Make me a little bit cross that he had to die from the virus. Something wrong with the care he must have been given. But he has left an amazing legacy. A truly lovely man.

Weather Warning

 (Tuesday morning) There is an urgent weather warning. A yellow, covering most of the country, including Milton Keynes. A real danger of flooding and people told to keep well away from rivers. There  are some people who won't heed the warnings and get themselves into trouble and need rescuing. It's been called Storm Christoph. I know they use names which are in alphabetical order and alternate male and female names.

I had a text message from my doctor's surgery about making an appointment to have the covid vaccine. I rang this morning and it's booked for this Friday at 3.20p.m. Well, at least that will be done. I think we can definitely see a  light at the end of the tunnel with this current pandemic. I'm not suggesting for one moment that we can all go around hugging each other and that life will immediately return to normal, because it's not likely to. For a start, the scientists who have developed these vaccines aren't sure how long they will be effective for and, probably more importantly, whether, once you've had it, will you be able to spread the virus, which is the main problem and basically why we have to have social distancing.

Alfie has recently had the strange habit of sitting on the sofa next to me and staring at me. I hadn't the slightest idea what it's about. I took him out earlier and thought he needed to 'do his thing,' (do I need to explain further? Probably not.) Yes, he did. But when we got back in the flat, this 'staring' business continued. Then I had a lightbulb moment. Possibly he was hungry. Staring at me was his way of trying to communicate with me. So, I gave him one of the meat sachets I use to feed him in the evening. He scoffed it down completely, so that explains the staring at me. Situation resolved and he now seems a good deal happier.

(Wednesday) I didn't wake up until 7.30 this morning. I don't think I've woken so late for goodness knows how long. On taking Alfie out we found it was windy and wet, but not the torrential rain I was expecting. We'll probably get a real downpour later in the day.

(Later) I had to go to Lloyd's Pharmacy in Sainsbury's to pick up a prescription which had been made up for me and got one or two other items at the same time. It was relatively quiet and easy to get in and out including parking the car. As I write this, the wind is blowing half a gale outside (well, it would be worst if it was inside!) They were warning on BBC Breakfast about heavy rainfall in the north of England, particularly in the area of Yorkshire that we had holidays in, the Calder Valley in particular. I feel sorry for the householders who get flooded on a regular basis in that area. I don't expect their insurance companies will pay out if you have repeated flooding. 

(Later) I've been watching the Inauguration of Joe Biden, which had been shown on television. BBC1 had it as well as the BBC News channel. As expected, Donald Trump didn't turn up, although his vice president, Mike Pence, did.  Biden's Vice President, Kamala Harris, the first woman and of colour to become his Vice President also sworn in.