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. 

Welcome Sun!

Monday. 10.00a.m.The confounded pigeons are making the same ridiculous noise outside my window, which is wide open to cool the place down. Can't pigeons learn a different song? Just so boring. The simple fact of the matter is that they have to be the most boring birds around. Not exactly the most intelligent of birds, granted, just wandering around with that stupid head movement. If I was to go around like that I'd get a really bad headache. It made me laugh as I stood at my kitchen sink doing washing-up (yes, unbelievably, I do that occasionally.) watching a group of pigeons perched in the trees which are in the community garden at Dexter House. It was quite breezy, and the branches of the trees were swaying too and fro, but the silly birds wouldn't move. No sense at all.  I would laugh if they fell out of the trees! They don't have the sense to perch somewhere more secure. No wonder they get eaten by predatory birds such as hawks. Just make a lovely meal for some bird and it would rid us of the stupid noise. There are red kites that circle around this area, so perhaps they are likely to sup on a dense pigeon or two.

Wednesday. It's a bit colder this morning. Not frosty, but considerably cooler than the past few days. I have decided to give my knees an airing and put on my shorts. I didn't realize how cold it was until we got outside. 

Thursday. 8.10 a.m. I was surprised again by how cold it was this morning. The sun is out and that stupid pigeon is again making its stupid noise.

I did a Sainsbury's online shop on Monday and the delivery was yesterday at around 12.30. Unfortunately, I ordered skimmed milk instead of semi-skimmed. I don't know why I ordered it as, quite frankly, it's not nice. Just thin and watery. Never mind. I had to drive to the Tesco Express in Oldbrook Boulevard to get some semi-skimmed. I found that there was ice on the car's windscreen which had to be thawed off before I could drive away. A few sprays of de-icer and a few flicks of the wipers and it was gone.

Later. I have taken Alfie to have his face trimmed at The Groom Room. I can just say he can now see where he's going and I'm sure he's a good deal happier. The proper groom has now, fortunately, been scheduled to 28th April thank goodness, which means he can now be trimmed fully, have his claws trimmed, and generally have a full grooming session. It really was too long to wait until July which was when he was originally booked.

Friday. 7a.m. It's bright and sunny as I write this, but even so, it is chilly out, as I discovered just now when I took Alfie out for his usual walk. Not a great deal more I can say at the moment. What's changed? Not a lot. Lockdown is a bit like being in that film, 'Groundhog Day,' where you get trapped in the same day, which just repeats endlessly. You seem not to be able to get out of it. I think we're in some mad experiment, to see how long we can put up with isolation. We are being observed by an alien species, who sit inside their mothership, several thousand miles into deep space. They view us in the same fashion we watch ants in a colony.  Those aliens are preparing to invade, and we won't notice, because we're so obsessed with our mobile phones, we just don't seem to notice what's going on. I think there's a sci-fi novel in there somewhere  . . .