Another Day Older

 Saturday. 6.30 p.m. There's really not much to report at the moment, so expect very little on here.

I have taken Alfie out for his second outing mid-morning and it was attempting to rain. You might say, how can be an attempt to rain? What I mean was that it was more like a thing rainfall. It was definitely undecided and it didn't seem to me to risk a sudden downpour when we were on the opposite side of Oldbrook Green, so we almost immediately went home. Alfie is getting really somewhat lazy and he was the one who decided it was time to go home. I just have to say to him 'home' and he takes me home!

Sunday. 6.35 a.m. It's misty and damp this morning as I took Alfie out.

The milk was off AGAIN! This is beginning to become somewhat annoying. The 'best before' or 'use before date is the 28th of July, so it shouldn't have gone off so quickly. I begin to question whether this milk is dated correctly. Perhaps it's older than it should be, hence it going off quicker. It is kept in my fridge, so what is the problem? It means I will have to go out to Tesco and buy more so I can at least have my mug of tea as normal at this time of the day. Not impressed.

Monday. 6.25 a.m. Poor Alfie has had the runs for the past couple of days. We went out as normal yesterday, but last night, around 1.30 a.m., he came into me in bed and wouldn't lay down and go back to sleep. He, unfortunately, made a rather runny mess and it was this that prompted me to take him out. I had to get hurriedly dressed, with Alfie barking noisily, and I had to take the small torch with me as there was very little likelihood of being able to see what we were doing on the grass outside Dexter House alongside Strudwick Drive. 

Last evening I watched a production of the Oscar Wilde Play 'A Woman Of No Importance' on Broadway HD. It's not a play I know, so it was quite revealing and some of the material seemed very relevant to today, particularly the treatment of women. It starred Anne Reid, Eleanor Bron, and Eve Best. I know the more famous 'The Importance of Being Ernest,' and can quote great chunks of it. It's very clever and witty and is full of famous Wildean epigrams. This earlier play doesn't have the same sort of 'zing' and seems a bit forced and contrived (I suppose all his plays are contrived to some extent.) and seems like a dry-run for the later play, having some lines hinting at the famous epigrams in 'Ernest.' But in this production, why is it so dark? The first scene is supposed to be in the open air but is lit so that it might as well be nighttime. Just gloomy. Is that a modern trend in theatre lighting? The same in the next scene, set in a drawing-room. And what was the musical interlude about, during the drop for what was obviously a scene change? Was that the director's idea? Was it in Wilde's original script? I'm not sure it worked.

It's Raining!, It's Pouring!

 Saturday. 7.45 a.m. I had a fairly good idea that it was raining this morning and I could see clearly that it was when I looked out of the kitchen window around 6.15. I made sure that I was well dressed for such weather conditions and so I put on my bright yellow raincoat. Alfie has his rain jacket on as we went out into Strudwick Drive. We weren't out more than a minute because no sooner had Alfie had done his wee on the grass than he took us back inside in the dry. You can't blame him really, but as I've said before, he doesn't like getting wet!

Later. 2.15 p.m. I was due to meet up with Nick in the Central Shopping centre at midday. I couldn't drive in as my car is inoperative at the moment, as you would know if you follow my posts regularly. Even though it was raining (and it still is as I write.) I decided to walk as it's no more than a 20-30 minute hike, crossing Oldbrook Green and then through to Avebury Boulevard and then a short walk into the central shopping centre. I noticed as I walked past,  Debenham's unit is to be taken over by Next (Debenhams went into administration a few months ago.) I was wondering what would happen to that unit when they moved out. Now I know. Also, the former House of Fraser unit is now something to do with Harrods, I think it looks like beauty products they sell, having seen as I walked past.

I had to find somewhere to sit. The management of the shopping centre has seen fit to remove virtually all of the seating within the centre to comply with government social distancing regulations because of the pandemic. What seating there is, is extremely limited. I managed to find a place to rest and sent Nick a text to let him know I was near Specsavers. Then a couple came to sit down, the husband was disabled so I let him have my place. I had to find another seat so moved along the centre. Nick appeared and we went to get take out food and coffee from Costa near Marks and Spencer's. We could have ordered using the Costa app which would have probably meant we needn't have to queue. As it was there was a queue outside so we had to wait to get in.

We managed to find a spot to have our coffee, me sitting on one of the vacant seats and nick on the wall nearby. Then we walked to John Lewis. It was surprising how few people there were inside and no queuing outside but I used the hand gel which was provided at the entrance.

By the time we walked back along the shopping centre, it was time for me to walk home. Nick remained a bit longer and then caught his bus back to Northampton. 

Sunday. As the car was inoperative, it meant I couldn't drive to church, so I watched the live feed via Facebook. For some technical reason, the video was somewhat jerky, but the audio was fine.

Monday. 6.55 a.m. A mild morning. Not a great deal happening at the moment and I don't really expect there to be. Slight rain and Alfie didn't intend to stay out any longer than necessary.

Later. I rang Bleakhall Motors after 8 o'clock but the mechanic who was back yesterday won't be back till later today. I'll ring again at 2 o'clock and hopefully, someone will come out and fix the problem. The batter needs testing to check that it isn't something else that is wrong with the electrics, but I still maintain that it's the battery that has failed, not charging so a new one will require installing.

I had a telephone call from one of the doctors at Central Milton Keynes Medical Centre. I was expecting it to be at around 10 a.m. but the call came at 9.30. I have to have a blood test, which is arranged for next Monday, this time to check my kidney function. One of my medications will be dropped as it is responsible for my dry throat and causing the horrible cough I get. No problem with that. I must say, telephone consultations with my doctor is easier via telephone because you don't have to worry about parking or even driving to the surgery.

3.10 p.m. I was expecting to have to telephone Bleak Hall Motors around 2 o'clock, but at 1.45 they actually rang me to say their mechanic was waiting outside, so I rushed downstairs and the mechanic was there with his van. We tried to start the car and he told me it was the battery that was the cause of why the car wasn't starting. He had two replacement batteries in the van. I chose the cheaper one but was surprised at the cost, but there's no point in having a car if you start worrying about running costs and repairs. It was soon fitted and the car run for a while. I later rang Bleak Hall Motors and paid using my bank card and that was that. Another problem solved.

Lost Phone and More Rain

I had a phone call yesterday, Wednesday, But when I went to answer I could't find it. The landline phone is wireless and it has a base unit near the point where the line comes in and the handset sits in this unit. I usually return it to the base when a call ends, but for some reason it go separated, so when I went to answer I couldn't find the thing so the ringing came to an end. I hunted around  the lounge and the table where the unit sits and then realised that there was a button on the base unit which would find the handset if you pressed it, which I did and there was a 'peep' and the handset was discovered between the sofa and the armchair where I usually sit. So, panic over. No idea who it was who rang, but later I got a call from one of those computerised systems, saying it was BT and they were about to turn off my broadband. But, considering what happened a few weeks ago with my laptop being hacked, I doubt it was genuine. When they rang then and said they were from BT, no doubt this latest call was a scam of some sort, so I put the phone down very quickly.

The weather is as wet as ever. I just hope it improves soon. I want to go to the history festival in Campbell Park this weekend and if it continues to rain that's going to be washed out, unfortunately. Alfie didn't get his routine early-morning walk around Eaglestone Park. I'm not taking him out in pouring rain otherwise we're both going to come back soaked to the skin.

I've been to Sainsbury's this morning. They've moved everything around in there and it's annoying, to say the least. You get used to the layout and then on your next visit it's all been moved around. They know that the average shopper buys basics, such as milk, bread, potatoes, sugar, each shop and these are like points on a compass which you move between. They haven't been moved, I notice. In the personal care and pharmacy area everything is different. I just cannot find bath gel, how ever hard I look.

Friday morning. So, another week almost over. No sign that the rain is going to stop. I left off taking Alfie until I was sure it wasn't raining, or if it was, that it wasn't too heavy that we would get a soaking. After 7 o'clock I peered out of the bathroom window and couldn't see the stream that we usually get, running down the road in front of the house, so I made the decision to venture forth. Alfie is like a coiled spring, he doesn't relish being cooped up indoors.

The bird feeding station is suddenly alive with birds! As I write this and look out of the lounge window I can see at least 6 little birdies on it. I think they're some sort of tit, but not sure. Only problem is, a great fat pigeon insists on landing on the feeder and almost destroying the entire thing. It frightens off the birdies and then a loot of the food in one of the feeders gets knocked and the seeds fall out on the ground. I don't know how to prevent it coming and ruining things. I know what I'd like to do, but I don't think the neighbours would be happy. I might get a pea shooter and shoot it up the backside. Anyway, I took some photos of the birds on the feeder yesterday and uploaded them onto my Facebook profile if you want to have a look.

  

Birds on the bird feeding station

After some thought, I decided to upload a photograph onto this blog post, so here they are, tucking in to the grub in one of the feeders.

I've been out. I have to get flea and worming treatments for Alfie, so I drove over to the retail park at Rooksley. Pets At Home is one end of the parade of units and Smyth's Toys is the other. I walked the length of the parade, past Hobbycraft, one of Carol's favourite haunts as well as Next. A lady was arriving at the Costa's branch and she unlocked and then went inside, locking the door behind her. When I walked back past later I noticed a sign on the door, saying, 'closed due to technical problems, sorry for the inconvenience.' Don't ask me what the problem was, because I didn't know, but probably an electrical fault with some of the machinery they use, a fridge or one of the coffee machines. Not good for business, I'm certain. 

Pets At Home have a subscription service for the flea treatment, which means I will have the phial with the treatment in it delivered via post every month, which means I won't forget to treat Alfie every couple of months. Then I walked along the parade and went into Smyth's toy warehouse. Not actually a good idea, because I was surrounded by so many toys it was impossible to choose what I was after for grandson Eddie. I was after a bath toy, something for him to play with when he's having a bath. I couldn't resit many of the interactive toys, those that make a noise, dance around or otherwise have a button on them to get you to press and get the toy to dance, burp, sing, or make some sort of noise. Something that Alfie would love. So I fell for a  Grumble, which makes rude noises and does all sorts of strange things. If nothing else, it made me laugh, a d probably some other customers in the store!

Wild, Wet and Windy

Carol has been out with me for some short walks over the past couple of days, so it's a good sign that she's feeling up to taking Alfie out with me along the Redway behind the house and then into Eaglestone Park. A really positive sign. Yesterday she wasn't feeling very good, with a great deal of pain continuing. I've mentioned before that Alfie becomes a sort of Tasmanian Devil whenever you go anywhere near his lead, hanging on it's hook in the kitchen. He soon picks up on the idea that we're going to take him for a walk. I gave him a treat tin full of Baker's dog treats for Christmas. He soon realised that it contained his favourite treats and he's got wise to what's inside and has got the habit of going and prodding it with his nose to get attention and as a way to get me to give him a treat. 

It's just as well we didn't want to go anywhere over the New Year's Bank Holiday because the weather has been exceptionally bad.  Well, I say we 'didn't want to', which isn't exactly true. We would have liked to, but with Carol not being well, it wouldn't have been easy. We still plan to go somewhere or other, even if it's just for a short outing, to a garden centre or a coffee shop for an hour to so. But with the weather so awful it was certainly not advisable. At least not snow and ice, but wind and rain. Looking out of the kitchen window whilst washing up, it was raining hard and there was a river running down the road outside. As I write this, at 7.25 a.m., I can hear the wind roaring outside. It would actually put me off driving far as you can never tell whether there will be trees falling and things like roof tiles. No doubt we will see bits of tree everywhere outside and it's a well we have a relatively strong garden fence because otherwise we'll have had parts of it blown over. I expect there will be fences in a horizontal position around the estate. I did notice some new sections of fence when we took Alfie for a walk a few days ago which must have been to replace wind-damaged sections. The bird feeding station is being blown about by the wind. No doubt it's putting the birds off visiting it to have a bite to eat.

It would appear, from watching the weather forecast on BBC Breakfast, that we are having it relatively easy on the weather-front. Storm Eleanor seems to be wreaking havoc in the west of the country whilst we're getting it fairly lightly. In some parts of the country it would appear people are having to endure power cuts as a result of the weather.

Well, at least, with the Christmas and New Year out of the way, things have returned to normal. We have to put 'the bins' or our rubbish bags out on a Wednesday normally, but with the two Bank Holidays it generally means the rubbish collection around here is scheduled for Thursday. Last week I put the rubbish out on Thursday, but they hadn't been to collect it by the evening. What had happened? Why had the Council workmen not been to collect the rubbish from around this area? Everyone else along the road had put their black and pink sacks of rubbish out as I'd done. Since having that sheet left outside warning us that putting our rubbish out too early might be classed as 'Fly Tipping' and we could be fined for doing so, I think our neighbours might be a bit wary of putting their rubbish out too early, but, in my opinion, it's a bit mean to fine people when it's not intended to be 'Fly-Tipping' if it's just put out for the Council workmen to collect. Just a good way to get money out of people, of you ask me. The collection didn't take place until Saturday, which was strange, as I don't think I've known they work on a Saturday. The longer the bags of rubbish are left outside, the more chance there is that they will become attacked by cats and other animals. I have seen a cat tearing open the black bin bag and the contents being spilled out. Crazy that the Council don't think about this issue. If the bags were inside bins, Wheeley or otherwise, they would be less likely to be attacked in this way. Well, surly they'd be free from the predations of cats and other animals, as well as birds with long, sharp beaks, such as magpies, which there are flocks of around this area. By the way, what is the proper name for a flock of magpies? Apparently, it's a tiding of magpies. So, I'm intrigued to know why a tiding. They seem to appear around the area on odd occasions, but at the moment there are none. So, if so, where do they go? Do they migrate in winter, going to warmer climes? They can be quite aggressive and I've seen them mob other birds. They also make a rather unpleasant sound, which is rather like the sound of a ratchet, like something being wound up, clockwork, like a clock.

When I looked out of the window in the kitchen early this afternoon there was a howling gale outside. Leaves being blown along the road outside and no doubt bits of tree, twigs, fallen branches and goodness knows what else out into the countryside. Not conditions I would choose to drive in, so it's as well we haven't been out. probably the road from the A5 into Woburn, which we drove along regularly, would be quite dangerous as it's lined with trees all the way.

By tea-time the wind had dropped considerably. I can't hear the wind howling outside as I write this (6.55 p.m.).

Next day . . .

This is being written on Thursday morning at approximately 6.05. It's raining heavily. I've had to put the rubbish out. I know, really exciting, but life must go on. Alfie followed me downstairs, so I assumed he wanted to be let out. I opened the patio door from the kitchen and he poked his head out. I continued to tie up the bin bags. The pink re-cycleing bag is full, but it's quite difficult to tie up, and these bags are made of thin, flimsy material which is easily torn. Why do they make them so thin and annoying? Two of the black bags are exceptionally heavy. I began to wonder if they contained bricks as they were so heavy. I closed the kitchen door, having lugged the bags out into the hallway ready to take outside, but leaving Alfie in the kitchen. If I don't do this, Alfie is likely to shoot out of the front door when I open it, and it would mean chasing after him to retrieve him if he got out. Not something I would exactly relish with the weather the way it is at the moment. It is then quite an effort to get both black bin bags out of the front door as well as the pink recycling bag. I plonk the bags at the roadside ready for collection. I'm in my pyjamas and it's raining, but never mind. I return to the kitchen and find a small puddle on the floor just inside the door. Alfie has shot upstairs, so I assume he didn't go out into the garden and the puddle is his little accident. I don't blame him, because he doesn't like getting wet. A little drop of wee, unfortunately, but he sits at the top of the stairs and I can see him peering down at me, looking anguished. Come down, silly little dog. It was an accident. Never mind. Who would want to go out into a rain-lashed garden to do a wee?

Worsening Weather

As I've mentioned in the earlier post, we now have a repaired fence. It's taken long enough time to find someone to do the work, that is, within a reasonable budget. We knew our beloved landlord wasn't going to do anything about it as he's tight-fisted, to say the least. As a result of the work we are now hoping to transform the garden so at least we can use it to sit in and enjoy. I think 'garden' is a somewhat loose term as it's got no beds or flowers in it or any vegetables in order to qualify it for 'garden.' I spent some time yesterday removing some rather unsightly objects from the 'space', such as a really ugly black plastic dustbin and a pile of four white plastic chairs which has been in the garden since we moved in. Also, an ancient barbecue and unsightly rubbish which is now inside the shed, or at least, what remains of the shed. The door to this hangs on one hinge, but at least this unsightly paraphernalia is out of sight and out of mind. I had considered getting the local council to remove it all, but it would have meant lugging it all through the house and placing it on the grass at the front of the house, and it would have meant a payment of around £20 for the council to come along and remove it, so the idea of it all going in the shed seemed a far better option all round. It seems that we have to contend with former tenants of this property who left oddments of furniture such as mattresses and the like in the shed (why they couldn't be disposed of to the local tidy tip I can't imagine. None of these items, particularly the mattresses are well past their best and not fit for use, having been in the shed in all the time we've lived in the house.) Well, when we look out of the lounge window we now have a better view without the junk in the garden and a decent fence in place. I had spent some time yesterday mowing the lawn and had intended finishing it today, but the weather has turned wet and it's impossible to mow grass when it's wet as well as being somewhat dangerous considering the fact that the mower is electric. So I will now have to wait until the rain stops and the grass is dry enough to cut.

Yesterday was reasonably fine and dry for most of the day. Which is what prompted me to get on with sorting out the garden. I got about three-quarters of it done. At around the time I usually go to meet Carol from the Academy, the sky darkened and it spotted with rain. I was going to walk over, as it's only a ten-minute walk, but had thought, it's no good walking, because we'll both get soaked because there was a very dark cloud looming over Milton Keynes. As I stepped out of the front door there was a rumble of thunder. Not good. Poppy doesn't like thunder. It's no good. I know she doesn't like it, but there wasn't a great deal I could do about it. I decided I'd have to drive over, even though it actually takes longer to drive than walk, which seems absurd. You can't get out through the exit which is opposite the Academy because of the traffic, so I have to drive round the estate and go out near the shops. By now it was raining hard, so it was just as well I had chosen to drive. But the joke was, by the timeI drew into the carpark at the Academy the rain had stopped and it was bright sunshine again. Just shows how crazy our weather is in this country. I got out of the car and saw Carol walking towards me. Suddenly there was an almighty clap of thunder and she screamed! She ran towards me and wrapped her arms around me. She doesn't like thunder or lightening! To be honest it never bothers me. I actually like a good thunderstorm. There's something elemental about it. It's exciting. But I don't think Carol would say that. She got in the car and she was glad to be going home.

I am in the process of transcribing my written material onto word processing. It's a somewhat time consuming job and not all that exciting, to say the least. But it must be done. I have several sequences written and I'm currently editing and revising these bits and pieces. I can do around 20 minutes at a time but no more as I can't type for much longer. My hands begin to ache. I think, if you were working in an office, you aren't supposed to work on a computer for more than 20 minutes at a stretch. So I have left off for today and will continue after the weekend.

Rainy and Wet

I managed to use the Strimmer I borrowed from Gary yesterday and to tidy up some of the tufty bits of grass around the edge of the garden whilst Carol went into the Academy this morning at it was 'A' Level results day. I must say the garden now looks a bit tidier than it did before our work. Have had to cut back a lot of the brambles which is a horrible job as the thorns have a tendency to get caught in your clothes and stick into your hands if you're not careful. Unfortunately it started raining as the day progressed, beginning thin and weedy and now quite torrential. No thunder or lightening as I write but perhaps we'll get that as the night progresses.