Short Trip To Hospital

Early morning and it's hot. It's going to be another scorching hot day. Just as well we don't have to do much, although Carol needed to pick up antibiotic tablets from Milton Keynes Hospital. We weren't sure where to go to collect them. It would have been easier for us to go to the pharmacy in the hospital.

I took Alfie out for his, by now, daily walk. He's following me around the house, making sure I'm aware that we hadn't been out. We do the usual circuit of the park and we see the two little dogs we came upon a couple of days ago. Chihuahuas both, one a brown-and-white and the other black. The black one, Poppy, obsessed with a rubber ball, very protective of it. Alfie just wants to be friends with them. He's not going to bother with the ball. After all, he's a terrier and not a reliever and don't you know it. He runs rings around both dogs and wags his tail frantically. Just having a lovely time. Really great that he's socialising with the dogs he meets.

Right. Having walked Alfie and had breakfast, we had to go into the hospital to the A.E.C.U.           (Ambulatory Emergency Care Unit) department in the Maple Centre.  Actually we didn't at first know it was there. We parked in the hospital multi-storey carpark and walked to the reception in the new hospital entrance. Well, not probably that new, as it has been opened for about 6-8 months now. It was here that we were directed to the Maple Centre. Had we known, we would have parked at the front of the hospital, in the ground-level carpark, which is actually directly opposite the Maple Centre. Never mind. We were somewhat surprised that there were notices along the top of the low wall outside the main entrance, telling you not to sit on it. Why? What reason was there that you couldn't sit on a wall, particularly at the moment when it's so hot? Might it be because the wall isn't designed to take a person or persons sitting on it? Are they concerned that it might collapse and then be sued for injury? Is it our old friend Health and Safety gone slightly crazy? Oh, never mind, there are a couple of benches further along which are designed to be sat upon and not likely to collapse if you sit on them. It was a relatively short walk around the hospital campus to get there. We spoke to a lady on the reception but then we had to go round the corner to the A.E.C.U., which is where Carol had to come a couple of months ago, when we had to wait virtually all day before a doctor could deal with a situation she had at that time. It wasn't long before on of the nurses managed to find the antibiotics that were needed and handed over a package of these medications to take home. Fortunately, when we returned to the multi-storey car park and out our ticket in the payment machine, we didn't have to pay anything, no doubt because we hadn't been more than half and hour, which means you don't have to pay.

Arctic Blasts

We've been promised snow, so it was something of a disappointment to wake this morning to find just  a mere dusting of the white stuff. Mind you, I had to walk across to the Academy around 9.30 to deliver a revised medical certificate and, by goodness, it was cold! My face almost froze solid. There's bright sunshine, but it's deceptive. It's just as well we don't have to venture out today, although I'm going to have to go to Sainsbury's later to do a bit of shopping as they're forecasting more snow around here for the rest of the week. Mind you, watching BBC Breakfast this morning, they seem to be milking the 'snow' bit for all it's worth. Hardly more than a few centimetres in places, mostly East Anglia and the North East of England, but is it really necessary to cancel train services and have schools closed for the day? A few weeks ago I wrote in my blog post about how people have become wimpish in response to the merest flurry of snow. Everything seems to grind to a halt when it falls. How come, in years gone by, schools managed to stay open, the railway system kept running and roads were kept clear? Now it's just an excuse to moan constantly about 'snow on the line' or 'ice on the tracks' or something really pathetic. Come on, where's the good old British resistance gone to? 'Health and Safety' gone mad! Just get out your shovel and broom and go out and clear the snow if it's stopping your getting to work or whatever.

When I drove to Sainsbury's mid-morning, there was signs of grit being put on the road. No doubt the Council workers had been gritting the roads around Milton Keynes last night. I personally don't see the point of putting down grit unless it's on top the ice or snow. Surely it doesn't melt it when it's already on the road surface. Who knows?

I've just bought a Kindle Fire tablet. I'm really pleased with it. Carol already has one, and finds it really easy to use. The price is very good, when you compare it with an iPad. It's already set up and working. I'm waiting to receive a case for it, from Amazon, which is expected to arrive sometime on Thursday. The Kindle Fire was ordered on Sunday and arrived yesterday morning.

Later. It's 2.05 p.m. It's snowing quite heavily (if you can actually have snow that falls heavily. Does it actually 'fall heavily'? I think not. Looking at it, through the window in the lounge and into the garden, it looks a bit like feathery bits, which wouldn't fall heavily. Feathers are light, so couldn't fall heavily. Infact, I doubt they actually fall, more likely float, depending on whether there's a breeze. Anyway, back on the subject of snow. If it continues as it is, it's very likely to settle. Then we'll be unable to get out in the car. Important tomorrow, as we need to get to the oncology department at Milton Keynes hospital to have the pump removed from Carol's arm as part of her chemotherapy treatment.

Even later. The snow stopped falling. As I write this, at 5.15 p.m., it's bright and sunny and there is absolutely no snow falling. No doubt we are going to get the full force of the cold weather with a fall of snow which covers the country, causing havoc with all transport. But it is February and we should be used to a cold snap in this country. It just annoys me that the media treat it as if it's totally unexpected.

Living At Home- Part 2

Living on a farm we had acres and acres of places to explore, run completely wild and play. I think we were exceptionally lucky in that respect, unlike children bought up living in a town. No excuses when it came to finding something to do in the school holidays. My mother would never allow us to spend our time indoors. No such thing as mobile phones, tablets, computers, Gameboys or any sort of computer game console. No daytime television during the 1960's. Television didn't start until children's programmes started at around 4-5 o'clock. No 24-hour television as we have today. As I've said in earlier posts, we only had 3 channels until Channel Four came along in 1982. If it was sunny and warm during the summer we'd be outside all day and not go indoors until it was teatime. Long bike rides through the country lanes around Cardington, generally messing about in and around the village, particularly the brook that ran through the farm. I doubt children would have such a connection to the world about them today as we had then. Getting dirty, building dens, tree houses and having adventures. Probably in a world which seems to be dominated by our old friend 'Health and Safety' it's more than likely that they don't have anywhere the same sort of lives as we did.

Malting Farm house was large (and is. It's still there, although no Murdochs live there any more). Well, it would have to be because there were seven in our family. It had lots of corridors and it wasn't centrally heated. I think I've mentioned this in an earlier blog post on here. There was an Aga cooker in the kitchen, which could be very difficult to light and had to be kept going using special fuel, sort of nuts of coal. In the dining room and some of the downstairs rooms there were fireplaces which were lit occasionally. It could be extremely cold in winter. But, saying that, we didn't know anything different and we survived. With so many rooms, idea for playing hide and seek. There were two attic rooms which we used as play rooms. It meant you could make a mess up there and it didn't matter. We had a model railway layout. I'm not sure, but I think we inherited it from a relative. I'm not sure whether it was from my mother or father's family, but it was quite an extensive Triang railway with no end of track that ran around an amazing raised sort of construction which included tunnels, stations, houses and other bits and pieces. With four brothers, we did get toys passed on as they were grown out of. Me being in the middle of five, anything I got passed down had already come from my two eldest brothers, James and Robert.

I had Mecanno when I was a child. I doubt very much if young boys have this toy nowadays, or even girls. I doubt they would even know what it was. It had metal pieces, usually coloured red, blue or silver, nuts and bolts and various mechanical gears, pulley and similar pieces which you could use to build all manner of machines, cars, bicycles or a combination of mechanical devices. I inherited most of this from my older brothers and got more 'sets' as the years went by. It grew and grew. You could get clockwork and electric motors to drive the machines you created and a lot of these creations could be built using instructions you got in magazines and leaflets. I'm not sure that you can still get this 'toy,' even if you can call it a toy. Birthdays and Christmases bought more and more bits to build more elaborate creations. Endless fun and interest and no doubt it encouraged boys (and possibly girls) to become interested in engineering and probably careers in this field. I think perhaps today children are more interested in computers and similar electronic devices and the fact that they can communicate with other people via the internet makes things that are more physical, such as Mecanno, somewhat obsolete, which is a real pity.

It seems that children in particular, but also a great many adults, spend a lot of their time on smart phones and tablets (as well as other gadgets) and don't appear to communicate much face-to-face. Living in a cyber world, chatting on-line via chat-rooms, text or email, seems to have replaced speaking to another person in the 'real-world.' You only have to walk down the average street or visit a supermarket or shopping centre to see how many people only appear to interact through their devices. Also, I'm sure that manners have gone out the window. People seem to have lost the ability to be even remotely patient. Not everyone, but mostly young people. They don't like having to wait, especially in queues, for example, at the supermarket. A lot more short-tempered people on the roads. A lot of people cutting me up on roundabouts, impatient to wait if you stop at a roundabout, coming up behind me in their car and expecting me to drive faster. Pushing you to move out of the way for them or at least drive faster. People expect to have everything NOW, not time to wait for anything.

A Few More Niggles

Who's idea was it at Marks and Spencer to put stupid stickers on the soles of their slippers which are very difficult to remove? And, after some real effort, there is a really nasty sticky residue left which is even more difficult to remove. This seems to be a problem with quite a few items we've bought. You get similar stickers in books, for example, in Waterstone's when they have their 'Buy one get one half price' or 'buy one and get one free' offers. They insist on having stickers on the covers of the books which are difficult enough to remove and once removed, leave a nasty sticky residue which is even more difficult to remove. Why wants their books covered in the stickers in the first place? The same with books in The Works, the bargain book shop. Just as difficult to get the sticky goo off the cover of the books you have just purchased from them.

While I'm on the subject of labels, not particularly stickers, but those of a different type. Why does IKEA insist on having such ridiculously large labels on their products? I know they have to warn people of the dangers of the risk of fire (but, come on, who in their right mind is going to put a match to such items as curtains, carpets etc etc, or put them too close to an open flame or 'source of ignition.'? Although, thinking about it, I suppose there is always someone who would.) What I'm thinking about are the horrible long bits of material stuck to some items they sell, giving such details as materials and where the item is made, which just look ugly and out of place. We always cut them off, on some items, such as throws and soft toys we've bought for our dogs. I suppose it's to adhere to Health and Safety regulations or something. No doubt to do with the E.U. so something we won't have to contend with once Britain has left. Then, why, on hot drinks cups, for example, when you buy a coffee in Costa, Starbucks or any other outlet that sells take-away drinks, do they have to state the patently obvious on the cups, with the words 'Take care. Contents may be hot.' So, what do you expect with a hot drink? Are people do dumb they need to be reminded that the contents are hot? Doh! The same when you have a microwavable meal, they insist on telling you that the contents of the little plastic container you have which has a lasagne in it or other meal, will be very hot when it comes out of the microwave or oven? 'Open carefully because hot steam will escape.' There's a surprise. I have a real dislike of these cardboard cups anyway. How on earth are you expected to drink from them, with the lid on, out of such a tiny hole? You get such a tiny mouthful, it's hardly worth bothering. I don't know why anyone would want to buy these cups of coffee, usually from vending machines, and why do people have to walk around drinking hot coffee in the first place? A decent cup of coffee needs drinking from a proper china cup, not something made of nasty plastic or cardboard, which, incidentally, most likely not be recycled. It needs drinking fairly quickly before it gets cold and is totally unpleasant. 

850th blog post: Snow and Cold

Incidentally, this is my 850th blog post. I can't believe I've managed to keep writing it for so long, and so consistently.

The weather has made a sudden turn for the worse over the past couple of days. The temperature has dropped considerably. We had a few days with things well below zero. We had been given fair warning on the television weather forecast. A couple of early mornings we've been out to the car and found ice on the windscreen and the windows, so it's just as well I remembered to stock up on spray de-icer. The aerosol versions are fine, but they don't last long. I got a plastic bottle with a trigger on it from Waitrose last week when we went shopping. These bottles are very good and supposed to be better for the environment but it takes some effort to get the spray to come out. You have to sort of 'prime' them to start and trying to keep a fine mist coming out is difficult. I suppose they don't need the propellant that an aerosol uses, the part which is supposed to be bad for the environment. I think they call them C.F.C'S, but I'm not sure what the initials stand for. I think they are the gasses which are supposed to be harmful to the ozone layer or something, and used to be used as refrigerants in freezers and fridges. Perhaps they don't use them any more and have been replaced. Carol would know, as she's a science teacher.

Yesterday morning it was cold and it rained early on. Carol has been hoping it would snow because if it does and it's deep, they will close the Academy. I can see why, as it can be dangerous, slippery, icy and nasty getting in and out of the place and the carpark would be difficult to walk across and keep free of snow and ice. I don't think we ever had a day off school because of ice or snow. In my day you just got on with things. I expect it's because of our old mate 'Health and Safety.' If someone fell over and twisted their ankle or broke a leg they might sue the Academy or worse. It started snowing mid-morning and it seemed it might continue and we've have a white-out. I suppose it did begin to settle, but it only lasted about an hour or two and seemed to fizzle out, so no chance that there would close the Academy early and Carol would have an extra-long weekend. I think she was disappointed when all this didn't materialise. Never mind. The sun made a vain attempt to show it's face, even if it was very weak and watery. Even so, it remained very cold, with more thin rain. The rest of the country has had some snow, in the north of England and along the East Coast they have severe weather warnings. I think they were expecting a tidal surge or something. 

We had planned to go for a swim at Nuffield Health, but by the time 3.30 came around (Carol finishes work early on a Friday.) we decided against it, as it was far too cold. Although it would have been nice to swim there as the water is usually quite warm and the sauna and steam room is good as relief for my back pain. Also, sitting in the jacuzzi is also really pleasant. Although, saying that, when we went to Nuffield on Wednesday we hot water was off. They had a notice at reception, telling us of this, and that a mechanic had been alerted and things would return to normal once things had been repaired, but it was not pleasant to have to shower under cold water. By the time we left for home it, apparently, had been restored to working order. tidal surge.

We went swimming at Nuffield last Sunday, after Church. We consider that we're getting value from our membership if we go there three times a week. We have now set up our membership and have even bought padlocks for use on the doors of the lockers in the changing rooms. These have combinations instead of keys. If you don't have your own padlock, they give you one to use and the key is on a rubber wrist band which you put on your arm. I prefer a combination lock as it means you don't have to worry about loosing the key, which might fall off in the swimming pool or somewhere else.

Snow Flurries

We've had a surprisingly mild winter so far. We have had a couple of days of snow, but not enough to cause too many problems, such as ice on the roads or drifts blocking the main highways or incommoding such things as airports and railways. We have had a couple of mornings when there has been frost and the car's windows have been iced up so we've had to scrape it off. But we were prepared and got a can of deicer as well as a scraper from the supermarket. Problem solved. The car has a good heating system which soon melts off any ice. Unlike the old car, which was so antiquated I don't think they had such refinements in them when they were built back in the days of the Ark. But this morning it was considerably colder and there was a small amount of ice on the windscreen. Strangely it was not on the driver's side but it was easy enough to scrape off. There was a flurry of snowflakes, so are we to be whited out? No, I expect not. I said to Carol, as we sat in the car waiting for it to warm up, "So, the kids will be out building snowmen in the playground then at break time?" To which she replied "No. Because they're not allowed to." How miserable can you get? When I was at school we couldn't wait to rush out at break time and have snowball fights and build snowmen. What is it with today's kill-joys? Health and safety have gone mad. I remember all sorts of things we did when it snowed when I was a child; sledging, walking on ice in ponds (dangerous, I know, thinking about it now.) and particularly making snowmen and even igloos out of snow which was made by rolling snowballs in the snow and making really big blocks of snow/ice, when it froze on thick snow. We made some fantastic igloo-constructions which seemed to last for ages. At school, we had to go out and help clear the playground of snow when I was at Rushmoor School. There was a large pile of snow up against a wall at one end of the playground which seemed to remain there for days on end. It must have frozen hard to such an extent that it began to push the wall at a rather dangerous angle. I'm not sure now whether it actually pushed the wall over, but it would have been quite unsafe. None of this nonsense with health and safety in those days. I think it was the winter of 1962-63, or thereabouts when the snow lasted what seemed like months. So much so that the roads were blocked but it didn't stop people moving about. And school went on regardless. I think we must have been much hardier then, no fussing about it being too cold or anything. And certainly no shortages of food, lorries or trains not getting through.

What Happened When the Lights Went Out

Today we had to go to Sainsbury's to do some very basic shopping. We had to order my repeat prescription at the pharmacy. We weren't in there that long.

When we got home we had to put the shopping away and go on-line as we had bought a magazine, Photo Plus, which is a specific magazine for Canon digital camera users. We wanted to sign up so we could have a subscription which meant we got a camera case as part of an offer. All set up with a Direct Debit and well worth the cost, meaning that each magazine arrives in the post each month along with the reporter bag (worth £130 apparently.) I already have B.B.C. History Magazine as part of a subscription and as a result each monthly copy is considerably cheaper than the cost if you buy in a shop. The same for  Photo Plus. You also get access to their website as well as videos and other learning materials.

Then we began to have some strange things happening around the house. First, the smoke alarm kept going off. I think the battery was running low, and every now and then the thing made this noise, which meant it really needed a new battery, so I have taken the battery out to stop the horrible noise and will buy a new battery in the next couple of days. Then the kitchen light began to flicker when I put the electric kettle on (this has been happening regularly for some time now.)The microwave kept making 'pinging' noises, the sound you get to tell you it has reached the end of it' cooking cycle. But how it did this I can't think when the power was off.  Then I coudn't get onto the internet. As we had only just finished our on-line setting-up of the magazine subscription this seemed very odd. Then Carol noticed that the fridge/freezer wasn't working, such as the light didn't come on when the door was opened and it wasn't making it's usual humming sound. We tried the kitchen lights and they didn't come on and then noticed that the meter whch we use with a top-up key wasn't lit up on it's digital display. We had only recently topped up with £10 so we couldn't see that it could be used up after only a couple of days. And if it was about to run out you get a 'peep' sound to warn you there is around £1 left so you can either top up with fresh credit or put the key in without credit and get £5 emergency credit which gives you enough time to get to a shop to put credit on the key and then put on the meter. We also checked the gas meter in the meter cupboard but that wasn't lit up so we knew it wasn't anything in the house as well as checking the fuse box in the kitchen (more like the switches that get thrown automatically if there is a problem with the power.)

I then recalled the fridge magnet we'd been sent from the distribution company, Western Power Distribution, who apparently are responsible for the electric cable coming into the house (not the company we pay our electric bills to.) So I rang the number on the fridge magnet, which said 'Power Cut.' I had been to the houses either side of our house to check to see if the power was off further along the street, but nobody had been cut off. So, the only solution was to ring this emergency telephone number. Having given details of what had happened to the operator, house number and telephone number (I had to use my mobile because our cordless telephone needs electricity to work the charging station the handset sits in.) and within around 20 minutes a very friendly and chatty man turned up and had a quick look at our wiring etc etc and in partcular the point where the power cable comes into the house in the meter cupboard which is at the front of the house. He was somewhat surprised by the poor quality of the work that had been done (I'm not surprised, as our landlord is in the habit of getting cowboy engineers, window installers etc etc to do work in the house. How long have we been waiting to have the garden fence repaired? Several years at least, and counting. The general maintenence of the property takes a lot to be desired, including the fact that the gas boiler has caused problems and hasn't been serviced in all the time we've lived in the house and should be gas certified for safety on a yearly basis and hasn't since we went over from renting through an agency to the landlord being responsible for such matters.)

Anyway, the gentleman who came out to fix the power supply told us that he could fix the problem. I'm not exactly sure what the problem was, but the two cables, negative and positive, were fused together which was why the power was off and it would require some part freshly installed which he could do on his own, but, because of health and safety, he wasn't allowed to do on his own, so he would require a second engineer to come out and help do the work. So, he rang and got through to this gentleman who came from Bletchley and after about 45 minutes they had managed to restore the power and we were extremely grateful because if they hadn't managed to fix the problem we wouldn't have been able to have any lighting in the house, hot water, the fridge/freezer would have begun to defrost it's contents and we wouldn't have been able to use the oven to cook our evening meal. But, fortunately, none of that happened. Over the years I've lived in quite a few houses, but I've never experienced this happening with the electrical supply. I've know a few black-outs, the electricity being cut off for whatever reason, but nothing like what happened here with this.

Safety Obsession

Safety, and particularly 'Health and Safety' seems to have become something of an obsession with some people today. Most, unfortunately, is in a negative sense. It should be used as a way of protecting people, but it has been used more and more by organisations to merely prevent people doing various things so that if there is an accident they won't get sued. Town councils have been known to prevent the use of hanging baskets because they fear if they put them up there is the possibility of one falling down and hitting a passer-by, however remotely. Then there was the story about a school where the children had to wear googles in order to play conkers (if you are reading this outside the United Kingdom, you won't know what this refers to. Please do a Google search to find out as I'm not going to describe this activity here.) 

As a child I lived on a farm and this was in a village. I think a farm can be considered one of the least safe environments for a child to grow up, what with the amount of mechanical equipment in use, animals either bighting, kicking or passing on some form of disease or bacterial infection. I can remember an incident when my  younger brother had a school friend come to tea one afternoon. They went off wandering around the farm yard and were gone for several hours. My mother wanted them to come in for their tea and went to look for them. There had been an accident. Parked somewhere in the farm yard was a large elevator which was used to lift bales of hay and straw when they were building straw stacks in the Dutch barn which was at the top of the yard. The children had decided to use tho elevator as a sort of slide and had been climbing up and down and sliding down the elevator but during this game the thing had tipped up with them on it. Fortunately they weren't injured, but it could have resulted in  a serious injury or even one of them being killed as this machine was vary heavy. It must have collapsed with an almighty noise and certainly quite a force. 

We used to help with the harvest and would ride on the loads of straw bales which were picked up on the  trailers and taken back to the farm by tractors. Looking back it seems amazing how dangerous this was, you could easily have fallen off, but you simply never thought of the dangers. 

I don't ever remember the back door of the farmhouse being locked during the day. This meant that people could come and go. I don't imagine that any of the houses in the village had their doors locked, unlike today. I think you trusted people. I don't recall there ever being any robberies from people's homes. It was virtually unheard of. 

I used to build tree houses all around the garden and farm. One in particular was in a very high oak tree, but I don't think the fact that it was so high up ever crossed my mind. It would have been a long way to fall if it had either collapsed or I made a wrong footing. I also made a hideout underground, by digging quite a deep trench in the orchard and then making the roof with wooden stakes laid across and on top of this laying sheets of corrugated tin and wood and over this piling earth. Actually, thinking about it now, quite dangerous, as there was the strong possibility of it caving in and burying me in the trench, but there again, it would never have crossed my mind. I can remember being inside this hideout one afternoon when my mother came out to hang some washing out on the line which was across the garden. Here mind was obviously elsewhere and suddenly I came out of the entrance of the hideout and she saw me and virtually jumped out of her skin!

I know there is a lot in the news about such things as child abuse and the enforced introduction of child protection, but it seems a pity that a lot of children don't experience the sort of life that I lead as a child, due to too much over-protection. I realise that there has to be a certain amount of protection for genuine safety reasons and to protect them from certain unsavoury characters who are out there, but it seems that children who are over-protected and don't get a chance to experience basic things such as climbing trees and being themselves as children and  exploring the world about them, and, in the end, being allowed to do things that we did naturally, won't grow up to be fully-rounded adults.