Bright And Early

 Tuesday. 7.35 a.m. It's sunny and relatively warm. The digital thermometer currently reads 25ºc. 

9.55 a.m. I have been out in the community garden, planting a few of the bulbs. It is far easier now that I have the trowel and hand fork.

Wednesday. 8.05 a.m. A somewhat flat and uninteresting sort of morning. Probably best described as 'overcast.' The digital thermometer currently reads 24ºc.

I have bought a Morphy Richards soup maker. I have been considering getting one for a while, because Carol and I had one when we lived in Eaglestone. I don't know what happened to it, because moving from there to Dexter House was so difficult. It was great to make homemade soup and try out different ingredients, and it was so easy to use. This one seems a good deal more versatile, and you can make smoothies in it. This was purchased from Very, the online retailer. The thing arrived yesterday evening. I am currently trying it out. You have to clean it before use, according to the instruction manual. It has a setting for automatic cleaning,  as you can't wash it in the sink because of the electrical parts.

2.05 p.m. I had to get some shopping, so I went to Lidl, but when I got outside, I found it was raining. Not very hard, but still enough to get wet. 

I have made a raspberry smoothie in the soup-making machine. Before you ask, yes, you can make smoothies in it. I had frozen raspberries in the freezer, so I took them out yesterday evening, and they were sufficiently defrosted to make a smoothie. I bought raspberry yoghurt in Lidl and, along with some milk, put it all in the machine, and after barely 5 minutes, I had a delicious smoothie! I worked really well, and I will have to experiment with the thing to do more smoothies and soups.

Thursday. 7.10 a.m. Alfie hasn't been out yet. He's under my bed, and it's impossible to get at him. 

The digital thermometer currently reads 22ºc.

9.10 a.m. Alfie was found on his bed, so I was able to grab him and take him out at last. He's currently wandering around the flat.

The sun is out. For how long, I wonder? Will there be another rainstorm before the day is over?

4.15 p.m. It's sunny at the moment, but it's also windy. Fortunately, no rain, although we do need some.

Friday. 8.15 a.m. A bright and sunny morning. The digital thermometer currently reads 22ºc.

I have my laundry in the washing machine. It should have finished its cycle at around 8.50. I will be going to Sainsbury's once that is complete. 

4.25 p.m. My washing was dry, and it was all put away. I then went to Sainsbury's, basically because my Lidl trip yesterday didn't allow me to buy one or two things. I was somewhat surprised to discover mince pies on sale. It really does defy logic that you would sell something which is a key ingredient in a household's food at Christmas, would be on sale in September and would most likely be inedible, or, at least, well past its best, at the beginning of the festive season. Do Sainsbury's expect their customers to hoard them? Or even, dare I say, eat them?

I have now made chicken soup in the new soup-making machine. It has come out so much better than I expected. Really tasty and inspires me to make more, and I will have to find a book of recipes to increase my soup-making repertoire.

There was a roll of thunder as I was busy making soup, but it didn't develop into anything major. Not even a slight rainstorm.

Cardiology Procedure

 Tuesday 3rd September. 10.25 a.m. I know, I don't normally put the date on my posts, but, since I haven't posted in a while, I thought it might give some sort of idea of the length of time between the last one and this.

I have mentioned in earlier posts about the procedure I had at the cardiology department at Milton Keynes Hospital, and the electronic device, called an I.L.R., (Implantable Loop Recorder) that was inserted subcutaneously into my chest. It's tiny, and I assume it has an electronic chip in it, similar to a SIM card which can be found in a mobile phone. Anyway, I was informed at the time of the procedure that I would need to upload data from the device after six weeks and had a letter given to me informing me of this, and I was shown how to use the electronic device which looked somewhat like a telephone with a handset which I set up near my bed and also a small device, about the size of a luggage label which I put on my key ring. By holding the key-ring device near the I.L.R. and pressing a key on it so that it lit up, data would be transferred onto it, and then you use the gadget near my bed to upload the data which goes via the mobile phone system to the cardiology department. 

Six weeks after the procedure, I had to make sure I uploaded the data from the I.L.R. I followed the instructions, and it seemed to work. This was the Thursday before the Friday when I was to expect a remote consultation, which was scheduled for 1 p.m. I sat and waited. The time came and went. What had happened? Had I got the day and time wrong, perhaps? I checked on the N.H.S. app and both were correct.

So . . . I will cut to the chase. As the following Monday was a Bank Holiday and I assumed that the cardiology department would be closed, I thought it a good idea to telephone on Tuesday to find out what was going on. I didn't have the telephone number of the cardiology department, although I must have got it somewhere, probably in a letter, but I had no intention of going through all my paperwork to find it, so I went on the hospital website. I found the number, or so I thought. When I rang it, it certainly wasn't the cardiology department, and was told, by the lady who answered, to ring the main hospital switchboard, and they could put me through to cardiology. So, that was what I did. I explained to the receptionist about not having a telephone call on Friday, and she looked up my details on her computer and then informed me that they don't telephone unless something untoward showed up in the data from the I.L.R. Mine was fine, so no phone call. I should get a remote consultation in around six months. So, that was that. It was good, but I think it would have helped if they had told me I would only get a call if there were a problem showing up in the data. I have to say, I feel fine at the moment. Certainly no strange heartbeats, arrhythmias or whatever it's called.

Wednesday. 8.20 a.m. A fine and pleasant morning. It's not sunny and the thermometer currently reads 22ºc.

Yesterday morning I went shopping in Sainsbury's. I couldn't believe they have mince pies on offer. I had to have a second look, but it was true. We're only just into September and Christmas goodies are on sale. Crazy. 

It Was Christmas Day In The Workhouse . . .

The title for this post may seem a bit over-the-top, but, you have to admit, it's quite appropriate. For the time of year. But this isn't a workhouse. They went out sometime in the middle of the 19th century. Oh well, I did try. It mentions Christmas, but that's all.

Thursday. 10.25 a.m. I'm not doing anything in particular today. I've no need to go shopping, as I went to Aldi yesterday. I'm trying to wean myself off Sainsbury's because it seems ridiculous to spend more than I need to when Aldi (and, for that matter, Lidl.) is so much cheaper. Also, thinking about it, you get more for less in some cases. You need to have a £1 coin to use their trolleys at Aldi, which I had, and I made sure I rescued the coin from the trolley when I'd finished. You have fewer choices than in any of the big four supermarkets, making it faster to shop, not having to decide on, for example, what brand of instant coffee or breakfast cereal to choose. It's so much quieter, which was the first thing I noticed when I went through the door. No distractions, no loud music blaring out. You get through their checkouts so much quicker, because all of their products have large barcodes which the operators can scan really quickly and if you set up your shopping bags and put them in your empty trolley you can put your groceries straight into the bags and then pay and be out loading them into your car really quickly. It's a wonder none of the big main supermarkets doesn't use this system. If you compare, for example, Sainsbury's products, they have very small barcodes, which take some time to find, which slows down checkout.

Friday. 7.45 a.m. It's a bit wet and rainy this morning. I took Alfie out a bit earlier than usual, which meant I had to take my small torch to see what we were doing. I went out earlier because I have to get my washing in the machine before 8 o'clock.

9.20 a.m. My washing is now in the dryer. The rain is falling heavily. No sign of it stopping, and it's dull and overcast. In other words, a typical December day.

The sun did come out later in the day. Whoopee!

Christmas Eve. Saturday. 7.20 a.m. My goodness! My Friday blog post must have been the shortest on record! Well, the fact is, I did very little, so not much to write about.

9.55 a.m. I've been to Sainsbury's to get some last-minute bits and pieces. (I know, I said I wasn't going to go shopping there, but there were items I knew they'd have.) I thought it was a good idea to go early because it was likely to get crowded, with people following my example and shopping earlier rather than later. It wasn't particularly busy.

11.00 a.m. I bought Alfie some Christmassy treats. They look like bacon, but when I gave him one, he sniffed it, played with it for a while, and then tasted it. It took him a minute or two, and then he ate it. He's such a fussy little dog! I think it's because it was new. I give him the same food and the same treats, but try anything different and he doesn't appreciate it. A year ago I bought him mince pie-shaped treats, but he just wouldn't eat them. I have a feeling they are on the bookshelf, uneaten. I know, before you tell me off, I should never give a dog mince-pies, because the sultanas and mixed fruit they contain can be toxic and even lethal to them because they can't digest them.

I've just returned from taking out Alfie, and we walked around Oldbrook Green. The first time in a while, due to the weather. The sun was shining, although rather weakly.

Christmas Is Coming

So, it’s little more than a month until Christmas, and the shops are heaving with shoppers, filling their trolleys as if they were expecting a siege. The supermarkets have filled every extra bit of floor-space with stacks of mince pieces, Christmas cakes, crackers, wrapping paper and all the paraphinalia of the Christmas season. All this seems to start earlier and earlier each year. We get over Guy Fawkes Night and Hallow’een (which never used to be such a ‘Big Thing’ in this country until only a few years ago.) and suddenly all the Christmas tat seems to appear all over the place. Generally the stuff that we couldn’t possibly do without, such as tinsel, party hats, musical Christmas trees and glitter.  What do people do with all this stuff? Their homes must resemble some sort of warehouse as they stock up with all these items. Do they gorge themselves on mincepies, and are these mincepies going to be even fresh and edible for the actual Christmas holiday season? There can, surely be only so many mince pies you can eat at one time, and I for one would be sick to death of too many, even though I do actually rather like mincepies.

Our year has been broken up into sections, to maintain as much profit for shop-keepers, eager to attract the gullible shopper. These seasons revolve around the standard holidays, Easter, Christmas and New Year, but then we have the addition of special days, such as Father’s Day, Mother’s Day (actually Mothering Sunday in Britain. It seems to be the U.S.A. which renamed it and I believe they have it on a different day to us in Britain.) Valentine’s Day, Hallowee’n and so on. As soon as one day has passed, the stock from that day is removed and replaced by the next. No doubt, as soon as Christmas and the New Year is over, the shops will be filled with pink hearts, fluffy cherubs with bow and arrows and Valentine’s cards. It makes me laugh that after Hallowee’n some of the supermarkets were selling pumpkins off half-price or less. I don’t suppose pumpkins have a very long shelf-life so it was better to sell this stock at a bargain price than have to throw it all into a skip.