Being miscellaneous things from the past month.

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Monday 1
Why do these things always happen late at night? Last evening at 11 N says we have no hot water. It was fine in late morning as we both had showers. I check: it’s the same low pressure error that we had last December. But can I remember exactly how to fix it? I’m certainly not confident. Spend 45 minutes hunting for my notes from that previous time – to no avail; they’re not in any of the places they should be. Very annoying; have to leave it to the morning. So this morning I message our boiler guy, who reassures me I had remembered correctly. Problem then fixed in about 2 minutes. Now I’ve made some notes; they’re stored in at least 4 places, and I’ve given N a copy. Also fixed boiler man to come next week to do a service.

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Tuesday 2
I do just love days like today. I spent the whole afternoon checking that I have all the paperwork and information needed to complete our tax returns. Despite my careful housekeeping during the year there were inevitably gaps in what I needed. This entailed logging on to internet banking for everywhere we have money – and of course ending up having to double check every bank account. This isn’t just soul-destroying work, it’s so laborious when every institution needs 3-4-5 different codes before they’ll actually log you in. I’m knackered! Still, with luck I should be able to complete the actual tax returns quite quickly now. When I can make myself do it!

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Wednesday 3
Another day at the coalface. So anything could have happened, and probably did. Of course, as it’s Wimbledon, it’s been wet on and off most of the day – and not very warm.

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Thursday 4
So today is General Election day. Everyone, including the pollsters, seems to be predicting a landslide for Labour. I think it’s going to be a lot closer than that and, as I’ve said before, we could still have a minority Tory government, or even a small Tory majority. Sure there will be a lot of tactical voting, but if all the Reform and Tory voters the polls say are there decide to unite it’s going to be a close call. I think Joe Public will chicken out when he gets to vote and decide to go with the Devil he knows, who he thinks is going to put money in his pocket and not raise taxes. I hope, for everyone’s sake, that I’m wrong and I have a pleasant surprise. We’ll see, although all may not be clear until Saturday.
(For the record I’ve not seen the news today and this is written at about 19:40. I also live in what should be a safe Labour seat.)

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Friday 5
OK, so I was wrong. Labour have a huge majority. The LibDems and the Greens have done well, but so, unfortunately, have Reform. It’s interesting that 4 of Reform’s 5 seats are in the less thinking areas around the east coast, especially Essex. It’s just a shame that the LibDems couldn’t relegate the Tories to be third party in Westminster. As for the Tory big-hitters who are left in Parliament, I don’t fancy any of them as Leader; I wouldn’t trust any of them, and many even less than that; what a choice of the bad, the ugly and the dangerous! It’s going to be interesting to see what happens now. The Labour government now have 5 years to turn things round; I wonder how much of it I’ll live to see?

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Saturday 6
I know I say this every week, but what day is it? I’m totally thrown these days. It’s partly down to being retired, although I should be used to that by now. But N’s hospital days aren’t helping; it seems unnatural to be going to the hospital on a Saturday, as well as Tuesday and Thursday. It throws the weekend out of sync, which is in part down to the fact that we end up having a light, quick Saturday evening meal. We always used to cook something more special on Friday, Saturday, Sunday but the Saturday has now gone by the board. And I’ve not adjusted.

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Sunday 7
Having talked yesterday about weekend food being disrupted, we did today revert to our usual good Sunday evening meal – we gave up cooking Sunday lunch many, many years ago in favour of eating in the evening (as we also do at Christmas). Anyway this week I’d bought a small piece of beef topside with no intention of roasting something so pathetic. This morning I cut it into slices and marinaded it in some lemon, brandy, olive oil and Worcs sauce with garlic and ginger. This evening I pan fried it for us to enjoy between bread with individual bowls of salad. This was followed by mixed fruit crumble (we had lots of fruit to use) and cream. All washed down with a non-celebratory bottle of Champagne. Verily it was a substantial repast.

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Monday 8
Comes the gardener. I didn’t think he was going to get a lot done as it was forecast wet from lunchtime, but it stayed dry all day, and a lot was achieved keeping everything in order.
However comes not the man to service the boiler. Not entirely unusual, but a bloody nuisance. A courtesy call would have been helpful. What is it with plumbers etc.?

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Tuesday 9
Yet another dismal day, in so many ways: definitely feeling like I need a new body and a new head, and – surprise, surprise – it’s been raining on and off all day. In fact it was raining so hard at one point this afternoon that I couldn’t see the hill which is no more than a mile away as the crow flies. It doesn’t help that I’ve not slept very well the last couple of nights: not lying awake but just not restful either. So I was quite grateful to have my morning meeting postponed until next week.

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Wednesday 10
Finally N managed to get the Boy Cat to the vet for his dental, which had been outstanding since April. Poor little bugger had 8 extractions (on top of the 2 he’d had previously) and a load of stiches, and is going to be sore for a few days. He’s becoming a toothless senior cat at the not advanced age of 7. One doubts, however, that the lack of teeth will stop him guzzling dried food – does he not crunch it because his teeth hurt, or are his teeth bad because he doesn’t crunch dried food? But blimey, the dent in the credit card. Let’s hope the insurance pays up!

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Thursday 11
Boy Cat seems to be recovering OK, although he’s still a bit dopey. But then he managed to tuck away a bowl of tinned tuna this morning and a bowl of fresh cooked cod this evening – it’s called a light diet! But all three cats are getting fed up with being kept in; we think they’ll have to be allowed their freedom again tomorrow.

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Friday 12
It feels like it’s been a successful week, for once. Several meaty chunks of literary society work completed during the week, somewhat against the odds as I wasn’t looking forward to doing them. Boy Cat’s dental done, thanks to N, and a claim form sent off to the vets for them to complete their bit. And today I filed both our tax returns in under 1½ hours total. That was made possible by (a) spending a couple of hours last week ensuring I had all the information to hand, and (b) a good, easy to use, software package to pull it together and then file it online. Overall a result, so a small glass of sherry might be had while I cook Friday evening dinner.

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Saturday 13
Why does everyone care so much about this godforsaken football match tomorrow? OK so England are in the Euro final. So what? Will it matter in 5 years (weeks?) time? Win or lose the country is going to be unbearable for the next week, at least; and I’ve no doubt there’ll be a few bars trashed tomorrow night, more if we lose. Actually I hope we do lose because the great unwashed supporters need to understand that we’re not God-given champions but a set of overpaid prima donnas. They all think it matters. It doesn’t. It’s a game, which like all the others has been ruined by money. (Which is why I now have no patience with cricket, which I used to love.)

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Sunday 14
The melon experiment [see Culinary Adventures #111] concludes. I had another couple of slices following lunch, and again I have a sore throat, although not as bad as previously. I also gave N a piece (less than ¼ slice) and she later reported a slightly sore throat and slight queasiness. So it does look as if we are both, at least to some extent, intolerant of melon, although it clearly isn’t a full on allergy.

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Monday 15
So we lost the football last night. What a surprise and what a shame – NOT. I’ve not been following the football, but it sounds as if England have been dull and lucky to scrape through each round. On the other hand, it seems that Southgate has been a decent manager: quiet, thoughtful and has got the most out of a set of less than effective players. Can England get further? From what little I’ve seen not without a completely new set of more dynamic players; but no need to change the manager.

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Tuesday 16
Teatime this afternoon and I could hear some gentle but persistent rain. Looking up, the sun was shining. A rainbow? Yes. An absolute stunner, although I could see less than half as it disappeared behand our oak tree. Clear, wide and bright against a very dark cloud. So clear you could easily see off into the far red on the outside and into the far violet on the inside*, which is unusually clear. I managed to get a few quick snapshots with my little point-and-shoot camera on a sunset setting.*** I won’t say infra-red and ultra-violet as we can’t see them, but that’s what it felt like.
** It pays to always have a camera readily at arm’s reach; you never know what you’ll suddenly see. It also pays to know your camera settings.

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Wednesday 17
Boy Cat went back to the vet for his post-op check-up, and got a clean bill of health. Which is more than our credit card did, as the insurance has declined to pay for his dental work on the basis that he’s had previous dental work before we changed to policy to the new provider, so it counts as a pre-existing condition. Such is the way insurance works, as I know well as my father worked in insurance and always said it amounted to gambling against the insurance company. Still at least we can afford it, and we’d do it for ourselves.

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Thursday 18
Most of the day taken up with a long and difficult meeting with GP’s Practice Manager, and then documenting it. Lots of survey results, and recent data, which isn’t all good reading, so we were trying to get to see what we (the patient group) can do to help the Practice turn this round. Not easy; there are no easy answers; all GPs are under the same pressures – which was emphasised by a BBC News report this afternoon on the same issues being faced by a larger practice at the other end of the country!

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Friday 19
A day for doing nothing except melting in as few clothes as possible. It was scorching hot. RAF Northolt (5km West) recorded 31°C, Heathrow Airport (10km SW) 30.6°C, and a weather station in Hatch End (7km NNW) 31.5°C. So we likely topped 30°C. Definitely the hottest day of the year but some way to go to get to 2022’s approx. 40°C which really was unreal. Cool showers required.

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Saturday 20
Blimey it was hot and sticky last night. Despite having the fan on most of the night I was perpetually wet, so with nasty wet bedding. Gah! Thankfully much cooler today, as forecast, but still quite humid and sticky across the middle of the day. I had all the study windows open which was very pleasant, with the merest of breeze – and we had a shower of rain this afternoon. Otherwise a noteworthy day for being completely unnoteworthy!

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Sunday 21
A day of odds & sods. Potting up my germinated date stones (7 of 11 have germinated). Unload images from the trail camera, which I didn’t do last week as it was raining heavily. Stocktake/audit the contents of the wine rack, only to discover we have a lot less wine than I thought, but a lot more spirits. And then cook dinner: salmon en croute, with broad beans, sugarsnap peas, and a green herb & cream sauce (this latter needs to be improved), followed by nectarine tarts & cream, with a bottle of Crémant de Bourgogne. Of course the cats helped with the salmon and the cream!

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Monday 22
Cometh the gardener to cut the hay meadow of a lawn. This upset the cats as they now have nowhere to hide on the savannah! It’s surprising how much better, and bigger, everything looks with a cut lawn. It’s a bit brown where it’s been long, but a solid night’s rain and it’ll soon green up.

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Tuesday 23
Well that’s the biannual (maybe triannual) wine order done. As usual Champagne** (just 6 bottles) from Majestic; they always have pretty decent Champagne at reasonable prices. Some Crémant on this week’s supermarket order; again they do a good one at a sensible price. And another 3 dozen of various from the Wine Society. It’s only money; and it’s something we enjoy at a weekend. The next order will probably be in the run up to Christmas, unless we run out of Champagne first!

** In the words of Hester Browne “Always keep a bottle of Champagne in the fridge for special occasions. Sometimes, the special occasion is that you’ve got a bottle of Champagne in the fridge.”

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Wednesday 24
Sitting outside late this afternoon over tea and cake and there were two red kites circling overhead. They appeared to be a pair as one was that bit smaller, so probably a male (unless a juvenile); and they were doing acrobatic close flying manoeuvres. They’re big birds: a passing gull (probably black-headed gull) was not impressed but soon backed off as the kites were noticeably bigger. They eventually drifted off towards the west. It would be interesting to know if they’re nesting anywhere close.

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Thursday 25
Last thing yesterday N came in from the garden bearing a feather. A Ring-Neck Parakeet feather – and that after I had commented earlier in the day that I was surprised never to have found one. Unexpectedly it was mostly dark grey but with green along the leading edge and tip. Checking, it is obviously a primary (wing feather), probably P1 as it was about 13cm. Out of curiosity I checked it under UV light, and the quill is very slightly fluorescent. I managed to photograph it under normal light but couldn’t also get a good shot with my little UV torch.

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Friday 26
Today was the day the supermarket delivery system tipped me over the edge. The “warehouse” (sorry, fulfilment centre) which supplies the deliveries holds a much smaller range than even a medium size store. This is a retrograde step as deliveries used to be fulfilled from the nearest large store. There are items I can get via UberEats (yeuch!) quick delivery from our nearest (medium size) store, but which the fulfilment centre doesn’t carry. This seems daft in the extreme. And the fulfilment centre range seems to be dwindling, with products just disappearing. All this has been annoying me for a long time. But recently the fulfilment centre, and the UberEats delivery, have done some stupid things. This culminated in both Customer Services and the Executive Office getting a very stroppy (but polite) email. What I didn’t say, but could have done, is that the whole offering is predicated on ready meals and barbeque fodder, all of which is over-processed rubbish. I don’t expect anything much to happen as a result, but if they aren’t told nothing will change. We’ll see what management bollox they come up with!

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Saturday 27
The Ring-Neck Parakeets have been squawking non-stop all day! N says they’ve half emptied the large seed feeder in under 24 hours. One, this evening, was flying around right by the study window; almost as if it was trying to land on the open casement window. There was a loud “bonk” so I think it flew hard into next door’s bedroom window; it fluttered off into the ornamental crab apple tree and sat there looing dazed for a few minutes.

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Sunday 28
More natural history … Late last evening I found a small parasitic wasp which had self-immolated in my bedtime mug of tea. The poor thing must have thought it has a nice piece of wood to sit on, but instead found itself instantly cooked. Anyway I rescued it, but CPR was not effective. I kept the corpse to photograph today.When you look at them, these things are rather splendid (for all their gruesome lifestyle). The engineering is incredible, considering it had a wingspan of about 12mm. It’s even more incredible when you see a tiny, tiny gnat – how can legs that thin be constructed (with exoskeleton, muscle and nerves) let alone work?

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Monday 29
Blimey, it’s been hot again today, although with weather stations locally recording only 29°C, not quite as hot as the 30° of a couple of weeks ago. But it must have been even more humid; it was unbearably sticky this afternoon, to the extent that I was bathed is sweat – horrid! I sat outside for 10 minutes after lunch and had to give up and come indoors as it was just too hot. Even now, in mid-evening, it hasn’t cooled a lot. Tomorrow is forecast to be about the same; then it gets gradually cooler with some rain and likely thunderstorms. We need something to clear the air.
In other news we took delivery of our Wine Society order at 08:10 this morning. The wine rack now looks a lot healthier!

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Tuesday 30
Another blisteringly hot day, about 2°C hotter than yesterday, so probably the hottest day of the year so far. It left me feeling completely knocked out. Even lying in the bedroom in front of the fan didn’t help much; and I must have drunk at least 3 litres of water during the afternoon. It’s no wonder I have a headache.

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Wednesday 31
Late last night a rather pretty yellow/brown moth in the bedroom – probably a Yellow Shell (Camptogramma bilineata bilineata). Wingspan about 25-30mm. I photographed it with my phone, so not a brilliant picture.It didn’t want to be caught and put out the window, so as the windows were open I left it sitting on the ceiling and it had disappeared by this morning.

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