Cold and Frosty!

 Wednesday. 2.20 p.m. There was a slight frost when I took Alfie out at around 7 this morning. I had to clear off a thin layer of ice from the car's windows because I had to take Alfie to The Groom Room to have a trim. We were due there at 11.30 a.m. It was fortunate that I had bought spray for exactly that job.

Saturday. 7.20 a.m. It was a bit of a surprise to discover fog when I went out with Alfie about 20 minutes ago. Also, a crisp frost. Walking on the grass there was a real crackle. Alfie was keen to get back inside to the warmth, but who can blame him?

12.00 p.m. It's sunny but still chilly. I've been to Sainsbury's this morning and it took about 15 minutes to clear the ice off the windscreen and windows. I just cannot drive if I can't see clearly.

In Sainsbury's, the travelator was running, but what was formerly the up one was the down one and the down one was the up one. Goodness knows why. There always seems to be a problem with this technology, as you would have read if you had been following my blog over the years.

Wednesday. 7.55 a.m. It's still mild. That's good. We definitely don't need high winds, rain or snow.

The workmen are still here, digging trenches, making holes and generally getting on with the work in the community garden. It sounds to me as I write this that they are using some sort of drill or machine that makes a loud noise.

Thursday. 7.35 a.m. It's foggy out this morning. It's not thick, but foggy nevertheless.

I have bought an air fryer. I had points to spend, which included Argos, so I looked at their website and had first intended to buy a Ninja one, but after some thought, I decided to go with one where you could see the food cooking inside, so I decided on a Tower one, which utilises halogen as it's heating source. I am gradually getting the hang of how it works, but I keep thinking that it's like a microwave and that you can't put anything metallic in it, but my thinking is wrong, and you can. It will take me a while to get used to it and, as usual, the instruction manual that comes with it is of very little use and it's written in very small and faint print so that makes life difficult. I shall watch YouTube videos and now bought a recipe book on Amazon, so that will help matters, or, at least, I hope so.

Easter Bank Holiday Monday

Saturday. 4.20 p.m. We had another men's breakfast this morning, this time in the restaurant at Dobbie's garden centre in Fenny Stratford. When I had taken Alfie out at around 6 o'clock, there was a mist hanging over Oldbrook Green, but it was still quite bright, but not sunny (well, the sun had barely risen by then. The moon was again shining brightly, more allusions to coins, medals and silver discs as a description seem more than  appropriate.) But when I went out at around 8.35 to drive to Fenny, I found that a thin fog had descended over Milton Keynes.

Some of the men's breakfast members (for want of a better word.) began to arrive. Dobbie's didn't open until 9 o'clock, but when a staff member came and opened the front door, we went inside and made our way to the restaurant. The entire place has been modernized, given a good deal more than a mere lick of paint. In the restaurant, the self-service element has been removed. It used to be one of those restaurants where you took a tray and moved along a counter where you could choose what you wanted to eat and a member of staff served you and then, when you had everything you wanted to eat, you went to a till to pay. You now go to your table and staff come to you, and they take your order, which is written on an iPad this is how your order is made up, and then it's bought to your table.

Monday. 6.40 a.m. It has been raining overnight. There were definitely signs of it when I went out with Alfie. Well, it is a Bank Holiday Monday, and it's surely traditional for rain on a Bank Holiday.

10.15 a.m. It's overcast and drizzling. By which I mean it's a rather paltry, thin sort of rain. Not the sort of weather you would want to go out in, in the traditional British, Bank Holiday visit, to a zoo, stately home or wherever, so it's just a stay-at-home sort of day. Alfie, I'm sure, would love to go out, but as it's a bit wet out, I don't think he'd enjoy it. We will wait and see how the weather develops and then perhaps go out.

I have been to get a few items from Sainsbury's. Fairy washing-up liquid is the main item, but also a few snacks. It wasn't excessively busy. Well, I don't think most people go grocery shopping on Bank Holiday Monday.

Going down on the travellator (moving people carrier? I don't know what you call it. It's what you stand on to get from the car park level below Sainsbury's store.) there is a really annoying recorded voice, which keeps on telling you to 'stand still and hold onto the rail' and, as you approach the top or bottom to 'get ready to push your trolley off the travellator.' It's so repetitive and annoying, done with a female voice. I was thinking, don't people think for themselves? Do we really need to be told the obvious, like this? (I have discussed this sort of thing elsewhere within these blog posts.) It's a bit like 'nanny knows best.' Okay, I know it's to warn you, but surely, any intelligent person can SEE the spot where you either get on the thing, or off (unless, of course, you are short-sighted or 'visually impaired (politically correct usage for 'blind.' The female voice is not only annoying, bossy and over-repetitive. Why not less hectoring? It could have Anne Robinson's voice, she of, 'The Weakest Link.' As you step off, or on, it could say 'You are the weakest link, goodbye!' or a Margaret Thatcher voice, in her rampaging headmistress-style voice. That would be enough to get customers moving. I was wondering if a female voice has the same effect on people compared to that of a male voice. 

2.00 p.m. The rain has ceased, and the sun has been shining, although it hasn't been very warm. As I write this, I can hear the wind roaring around the building.

Milder Weather

Tuesday. 7.55 a.m. It's foggy at the moment. It was something of a surprise when we went out at around 7.10. I hope it clears as the day progresses. It's not too thick, and visibility is about 20-30 feet or so.

6.05 p.m. The fog lifted gradually, as the day progressed, and the rest of the day was bright and sunny and really pleasant. The drive to Camphill was stress-free, with no queuing onto any of the roundabouts.  I think this was because it was half-term, with parents not driving their children to school.

The day at Camphill, in the theatre workshop, was spent reviewing the feedback from the two performances of '12 Nite.' (That was how it was spelt on the programmes and in the media. It was done to show that it wasn't actually as William Shakespeare wrote it, but an adaptation to be performed by a group who have a range of disabilities and for their capabilities.) Ticket sales were amazing and as a result, some £1,200 was made from the total sales. There has been a great number of positive reactions on social media, such as Facebook and Twitter.

During the lunch break, there was an incident, when one of the young men in the theatre workshop had a 'moment.' He got somewhat annoyed and swore at one of the girls, who got really upset, which was totally understandable. There was nothing violent, he didn't hit anyone, but it caused a situation which had to be resolved. As a result, Terrie, the workshop leader, had to get to the bottom of the incident and went off to deal with the young man. Generally, the group are very supportive of each other and there are never any raised voices, they all get on remarkably well together. Terrie had to interview all those people who witnessed the incident, including me, and write a report. 

During the time Terrie was out of the theatre, the rest of the team played a series of drama exercises and games. One, 'Grandmother's Basket' was played, with the team sitting in a circle and one person being given an empty basket and putting in an imaginary item, such as a boo, a dragon, a gold watch or whatever, and then the basket is passed to the next person who has to say the last item added and puts their own item in and the basket passes on round the circle with each person saying the last items and then their own, until it gets to the end of the circle, in this case, myself, who had to remember all the items, which was quite a feat of memory and add my own! I did manage. So glad to be part of all this! 

Then Paul, who is Terrie's assistant, suggested playing a game which might be useful in the development of a silent film which the group might make. The group was split into two and was given a theme for a sort of 'silent' or 'mime' piece. Then each group had to decide how to present the 'them' to the other group, who had to guess what the 'theme' was. My group had to first show a doctor's surgery, so we had the doctor mime, with patients arriving and him checking the patient. The other group theme was a school, with a teacher being the head of the class and some pupils arriving late, but in both exercises, no one could speak. It was a great success and even more than ever showed how well the teams work together. One of the definite positives of Camphill and showing the success of the community.

The afternoon was then spent watching a video on YouTube of a silent film, starring Buster Keaton, which was shown to give the team inspiration for making their own silent film. 

The day ended at 3.30 instead of 4 o'clock because Terrie and other members of staff had a meeting with the lady who is in charge of things at Camphill, to discuss the various things involved with the production of 'Twelfth Night.'

Wednesday. 7.50 a.m. A bright and relatively mild morning, but I did notice that there was a light frost on the grass when I took Alfie out at around 7.10 a.m.

9.00 a.m. The sun is shining, and I'm about to go to Aldi to do a bit of shopping.

11.00 a.m. I'm back from my trip to Aldi. In and out relatively quickly. I made a mess up with a one-pound coin in the trolley. I put one of the two I had with me in the wrong trolley and then found I couldn't release it, unfortunately. It might seem a triviality, but I never have a pocketful of pound coins, probably because I pay for most things with my debit card and usually not with cash. You need a coin for car parking or for these supermarket trolleys, Sainsbury's doesn't have trolleys which unlock with a pound coin, but Aldi does.

A Cold and Frosty Morning

Thursday. 8.10 a.m. It's another cold morning. The car windows are again frozen up, and I have been down to spray it so that it is easier to defrost when I drive off to the Oaktree Centre in about an hour.

Friday. 6.20 p.m. I am continuing with some more writing. I have done a first, although incomplete, draft, and then I did a second (also incomplete) and managed to put it all into word processing and by then I managed to edit it slightly, actually merging both drafts as I went along. I have changed one of the characters' names, which I have been meaning to do for a while, and I think it works better than the original name.

Saturday. 8.00 a.m. It was something of a surprise to discover it was foggy when Alfie and I ventured out at around 7.25 this morning. It was a little thick and gave a very subtle and attractive view across Oldbrook Green, with the lights in and around the green and along Strudwick Drive giving a blurry glow.

1.20 p.m. We had another mens' breakfast at The Fountain in Loughton. As usual, most of us met up in the carpark. As it was cold, icy as well as foggy, we soon went inside and the table we usually have was ready. The staff seem a good deal more 'on the ball' and we were able to order our breakfasts relatively quickly. I think we had around 15 people, which is more than we usually have. It's the fourth year of my being part of the SCF Mens' Breakfast and the first I went to was the Saturday after Carol's funeral, 11th January 2018, which isn't something I will forget in a hurry.

After men's Breakfast, I went home, basically because I needed the loo! Then I went to Aldi and did some shopping. I am attempting to wean myself off Sainsbury's, not that there's anything wrong with Sainsbury's, except it's cheaper in Aldi. I do like a specific type of bread I can only get in Sainsbury's, a malt loaf with multi-grains, and their fruit and vegetables are better. I bought easy peelers in Aldi a few weeks ago, and they went off really quickly, rendering them inedible and most had to be thrown away (for those who don't know what easy peelers are, they are small oranges, like satsumas or tangerines, which have thin skin, making them easy to peel. I have at leat two a day and I've been eating them since the beginning of the pandemic. I think that eating them daily has helped keep my cholesterol level low, as mentioned in an earlier blog post.

Foggy Day

(Wednesday)It was foggy as I went out with Alfie a little after 7.30 this morning. You could see the buildings in the city centre quite clearly across Oldbrook Green. Then I went to Sainsbury's to collect a repeat prescription and buy one of two other items, and on my return I took Alfie out again and the fog was thicker than ever, this time I wasn't able to see those distant buildings. 

I have to report something which happened in Sainsbury's underground carpark. It was a little afer 9 when I arrived there so parking was relatively easy. I parked on the upper floor, against the back wall and the then went into the store. On returning to my car and putting my shopping in the rear of the car, a car was pulling out of the next space to mine. Then the woman in that vehicle drove in the opposite direction in which you are supposed to drive along the internal road but along the walk-way, the marked-off area along which you are supposed to walk and proceeded to park in a vacant space. Firstly, this was incredibly dangerous, as she could have had an accident with a car driving in the right direction, and why move from a parking space she was already in and move elsewhere? No sense at all.

(Thursday) The awful fridge/freezer, which let me down terribly when it defrosted overnight about a month ago, leaving me with a load of wasted food which had to be binned, has now gone to the tidy-tip in Bleak Hall. Barbara, the new SHO (Supported Housing Officer) at Dexter House, helped me carry it out to the car earlier this morning. When I got to the tidy-tip I got a member of staff to help remove it from the back of the car. I was expecting to have to help, but he was able to carry it unaided. I would never have managed it on my own. Well, that's now gone, another box ticked. I now have to find some sort of unit to take it's place, in the kitchen, opposite the oven. I think I have found something suitable on Amazon, and should have space to take the microwave and have space to store other things which at present have no home.

I have moved doctor's surgeries. If you've read my earlier posts you will be well aware of my dissatisfaction with Ashfield Medical Centre. I had been told that CMK was a good and reliable surgery (Central Milton Keynes Medical Centre). It is based in Bradwell Common and opposite Aldi, so when I went to Aldi last week I thought it a good idea to enquire about transferring there and I am living within their catchment area, so I decided to get the paperwork and went home and filled it in over the weekend and found the identity that I would need, something with my home address on, so I took my photos Driving Licence with me on Monday and took everything with me. having h anded over the paperwork, duly filled in, dated and signed, I was expecting that it would be a couple of weeks before I got my welcome letter. It came yesterday, surprisingly, and a doctor has been assigned. I had to go back to the surgery to get a password for their on-line booking, which is exactly the same as that used by Ashfield. I had the password and have now got it set up. I also got a doctor's appointment booked for Friday 31st January, for a provisional discussion with my assigned doctor. Hopefully I can continue to use Lloyd's pharmacy in Sainsbury's to have my repeat prescriptions made up as I know the staff in their and trust them to do a good job, which makes a lot of sense. As for the doctor's at Ashfield? Sorry, no.

Foggy and Cold

(Saturday)From a cold, frosty morning yesterday, we now have fog. When I went out to take Alfie for his early-morning walk, I discovered fog no sooner I had gone through the front door. Then, walking along Strudwick Drive, I discovered think fog across Oldbrook Green, which meant I couldn't see the other side and the buildings around The Hub which are usually easy to see from Oldbook.

I went out with Alfie for a second walk at gone 10 o'clock this morning. The fog had lifted and it was quite sunny. We walked part-way around Oldbrook Green, but didn't do the complete circuit because there were two dogs running loose and I wasn't sure how they would deal with Alfie, walking as he was on his lead and behaving himself as he usually does.

During the night I woke as I sometimes do and it took me some while to get back to sleep. Last night I could hear the sound of cars having their engines revved. I'm not certain where they were, somewhere nearby, but possibly being driven, at speed, around Milton Keynes. This morning, when I went out, I was surprised to see a Mini sitting on the side of the road along Strudwick Drive, on a grassy mound, near the roundabout which leads into Dexter Avenue. It would appear that it had been stolen (I assume. No proof of course), no doubt taken by youths (only speculation) and 'Joy Ridden,' before dumped on that grassy mound. When I took out Alfie earlier this morning it was then I spotted it and, having walked Alfie towards Oldbrook Green, I walked back and a couple were there, with one of them on their mobile, no doubt informing the police of the vehicle. Then, a few hours later, Alfie and I went past, this time in pouring rain, which was the reason I cut this walk short, the car had disappeared, no doubt removed by the police and one would hope, returned to it's owner.

The continual sound of coughing from the flat beneath mine is driving me nuts. It wakes me up and then I can't get back to sleep. I think I might buy a pack of cough sweets and stick it through their letter box. Well, if it was me, I'd take some form of cough medication to relieve things. But my solution to the situation is to stick ear plugs in and therefore become totally resilient to the noise of coughing. Simple, really.

Currently reading a book called 'Six Minutes In May: How Churchill Unexpectedly Became Prime Minister,' and written by Nicholas Shakespeare. We get a completely different picture of the great war leader, but not the outstanding man he was to become, botching the leadership of a raid of the Norwegian town of Narvick, which was taken by the Nazis and caused a scare, since there was the possibility that Britain would immediately be invaded. Very well written and researched and adding to my learning of a period of our history of which I am very ignorant.

Foggy Morning

We woke up this morning to thick fog. I suppose a visibility of around 20 yards. It was quite an effort to see along Saxon Street as we came out of Eaglestone. The Academy appeared to have disappeared as we approached. The car is due back at the garage this morning at 9.30 to have new tyres fitted, so I hope the fog has lifted. If other drivers would only moderate their speed as they rush to work things would be a good deal safer. I think, once the sun makes an effort to come out it will heat things up and the fog will melt away. I have some quite nasty memories of fog on the Motorway from when I was touring with DaSilva's puppets during the 1970's. Also, cars speeding along the A1 and crashing into the roundabout near Peterborough, at  Norman Cross , and seeing their mangled remains. The A1 now goes over the top of this intersection, which makes it a good deal safer. Once you've seen that sort of incident, and heard the sound of crashing, it does tend to alter your driving habits. Really quite scary and the memory does make me rather reluctant to drive in fog, however thick.  I'm not sure how many people were injured, but you would think people would have the sense to slow down when there's fog and they can't see clearly what's ahead on the road. Just crazy.

Later.

I took the car to the O.K. Garage at Peartree Bridge. It turned out they didn't have the tyres to put on the car so they had to order them from somewhere in Bletchley. These didn't arrive as quickly as they might have done. Don't ask me what happened, but probably someone wasn't doing their job at the supplier's end, so I had to wait around 2 1/2 hours, but it's now done and we can drive off on holiday in two week's time with a car fully MoT'd and with tyres in a far better condition than they have been in quite a while.

Later still.

I could have started a new post, but decided to write this as a sort of post-script for the day. As I said when I began, the day started off foggy, but by midday it became sunny and really spring-like. There is plenty of blossom on the trees along the grid roads and opposite the house in Eaglestone. There are crocuses beginning to appear at various points around Milton Keynes but the daffodils are beginning to come to the end of their time, particularly those on the roundabout on Standing Way where it meets Saxon Street. We usually go to the Brother's Fish Bar in Eaglestone for fish and chips on a Friday but this week we went to get Kentucky Fried Chicken at the drive-in branch near the football stadium. They have changed the entrance from Saxon Street, it's a good deal wider and made into two carriage-ways. There is also another entrance further along the road, which goes into the site right next to the new complex which houses the Odeon cinema which has an IMAX screen in it.
We didn't actually use the drive-in as it was far to busy with many cars queuing so we parked in the carpark and went inside the restaurant to order our food and then went home to eat it.

Changeable Weather

Yesterday was foggy. Early morning you could barely see a hand in front of your face. Similar to Sunday morning, but then the fog cleared and we had an amazingly hot day. But today it is fog-free. It's dull and overcast. One of those dull days. I can think of no other way to describe it. But then, saying that, it's surprisingly mild. It's the sort of day where it's difficult to know what to put on when you go outside. Not really cold enough to put on a heavy jacket or coat and not warm enough to do without a lighter jacket or coat, such as a fleece.

It looks as if the local shop has a new owner. I drove over to buy some jelly babies for Carol. (As she is diabetic she has them on hand just in case her sugar level drops and they have sufficient sugar in them to give the required boost.) The shelf units in the shop are different and the staff is different. It looks as if they've taken over and made an effort to shake things up. There seems more space between the shelves. I did wonder the last time I was in there but didn't look too closely.