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personal

Unblogged August

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My usual round up of things I didn’t otherwise write about this month.

Saturday 2
Everything is so early this year. Today I noticed the first yellow leaves on the Gleditsia in the street outside our house. Now I know it’s the last to come into leaf and the first to turn in the autumn, but this is ridiculously early (like maybe 4 weeks) even for Gleditsia.

Monday 4
So I was sitting on the loo first thing this morning, and felt a tickling on my right leg. Looking there’s a wasp crawling up my shin. It’s fairly dopey, so probably not long for this world. Anyway, I caught it, identified it as a worker Vespula vulgaris (no surprise there) and released it outside into Nature’s care.

Tuesday 5
An interesting, and useful 45 minutes with N’s (new, young) renal consultant today. He says he’s going to be attached to N’s renal centre for 6 months, so maybe we’ll get some stability. If he is as good as he came over then we might make some progress, as he seems happy to try to push things along. Even better he was communicative and took the time to stop and explain things as well as asking some fairly searching questions of N. He was also quite willing to admit that the NHS is very good at finding ways of kicking the can further down the road! I’m hopeful, but I won’t hold my breath.
But why are hospitals such dreadful gloomy places? They try with the main public areas, but once you get off the main thoroughfare you’d have more ambiance in an old submarine. They’re dreadful! They need to be bright and cheerful everywhere; it would help both staff and patients.

Sunday 10
I’m struggling with which radio station to have on the alarm clock. Currently the alarm is BBC Radio 3, so classical music, but I’m getting fed up with them advertising other Radio 3 programmes (and always the same few) between every piece of music – and most of the music they play is boring mainstream classical. I chose Radio 3 because I can’t take loads of adverts, but want music, and not mindless pop. But there seems to be no alternative; every other station is either awash with adverts or mindless music. The clock/radio doesn’t have a CD player, or any connectivity; and music through the Google assistant things sounds dreadful. Where does one go without spending unnecessary cash?

Monday 11
So today comes news that we’ve lost one of the very first literary society members. Well he was 103! An American and a real gentleman, who was part of the American administration in Japan after WW2, and then a Fulbright Scholar in London in the late 1940s/early 1950s. He became a Professor of Public Administration at Syracuse, and was a book collector who had wide-ranging interests across almost all the arts and beyond. Although I didn’t meet him many times, I shall certainly remember him with great affection as a real and erudite gentleman.

Wednesday 13
Blimey, it’s still hot and humid. Although at 27°C it’s several degrees cooler than yesterday. But 79% humidity is on the high side – and it’s going to be worse overnight with the forecast for 89% humidity at dawn tomorrow. Today has been uncomfortable; yesterday was unbearable.

Thursday 14
Yet again a day of getting nothing I wanted done. The get-up-and-go had gone off somewhere else. I did however manage to spend a load of money – but I resisted spending even more, which I guess is a result.

Friday 15
Today is the first ever Home Nudist Day – a low=pressure day dedicated to people who choose to live clothes-free in the privacy of their own space. Whether you’re just lounging around, tending the garden, or working from home in the nude, this lifestyle fosters body acceptance, mental peace, and emotional freedom. For me home nudity is all about being comfortable, liberal, eccentric (which is how I was brought up) and not giving a fuck. After all many, like me, practice their nudism at home because they have no easily accessible social nudist opportunities (eg. clubs, swimming sessions). There’s an article on Home Nudist Day at https://www.planetnude.co/p/a-new-day-for-home-nudists; and I’ve written here about nudism many times, notably at https://zenmischief.com/on-nudity-and-naturism/ (or do a search on “nudism”).

Saturday 16
Now here’s a curiosity. I was eating some cherries for breakfast, and you know how sometimes you find a pair of cherries, and very, very occasionally three, conjoined. Well today I had four joined at the stem. I’ve never seen this before, and even N – who grew up with the fruit trade – said she’d never seen it either.And, yes, I know it’s all to do with where the stems join and how they’re picked, so it’s not entirely natural.

Tuesday 19
What an awful day. One of those where the mood is very depressed and there’s no get up and go. A real struggle to do anything other than fall asleep. Why do I always feel worse when N isn’t here? – something always drags me down.

Wednesday 20
The gardener was here and as it was dry and not cold I spent the afternoon sitting outside repotting some of the larger houseplants. Sent the gardener away with a clutch of Sansevieria to pot on or propagate. A shower was required afterwards!

Thursday 21
Why is it always just before a bank holiday? Today I have a UTI. Luckily I got a phone call with my GP and have some antibiotics on the way. But it doesn’t do anything good for the depression.

Sunday 24
Cannot shift this UTI and its effects. Actual UTI seems better, not best. But still discomfort round bladder; temperature up & down; etc. I see a trip to the GP coming on again.

Wednesday 27
I don’t know. I can’t cope. I’m deeply fed up with it all. Still haven’t fully shifted this UTI and it’s associated crap. Call placed to doctors yesterday, but they’ll not be too interested until I finish the antibiotics tomorrow. Not enough sleep last night isn’t helping. So N has had to go interview her specialist on her own which was not intended. Bugger!

Thursday 28
Early this evening there was some fairly heavy rain together with bright late sunshine. Surprise, surprise, a good rainbow; always easily visible from the study window. I can never remember the suggested exposure settings for rainbows, so inevitably end up grabbing shots on “auto everything”; not ideal but I’d rather capture the moment than lose it looking stuff up, especially knowing I can tweak up the settings digitally. Note the very faint second rainbow on the right.At the same time the hips on the rose which has grown to the top of our silver birch tree were bathed in golden sunlight, looking like strings of red fairy lights. I had to try, although I’ve never been very successful before as the hips are too small. I think this is about the best shot I’ve ever managed.[As usual larger photos by clicking the image.]

Friday 29
Processed the rest of my resent photos, but I’m keeping the best under wraps for now! 😊

Sunday 31
Well I suppose it serves me right for leaving them by an open window … but bugger! My chilli plants are covered in whitefly. They’ve been relegated to the shower and sprayed (one of the few times I will use an insect spray); surroundings in study also given a good spray. I picked the ripe chillies before spraying, so they’re edible; but the 3 or so decent sized ones left on the plants really aren’t so I’ll let them ripen and keep them for seed. After that I think I’ll retire the plants as they’re already in their third summer and not being as productive. Then we can start over next Spring. Not that we need to grow more chillies as we already have a freezer full!

memes, personal, ramblings

Unblogged July

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Being some things what I done, or what happened, during the month of July.

Tuesday 1
OMG! We’re over halfway to Christmas. Already!

Wednesday 2
There’s just been a Cavalcade of Hats going up the road. (There’s a community transport group here called HATS, who use minibuses to deliver disabled children to the school down the road. So every morning, shortly after 09:00, there’s a line of their minibuses promenading up our road.)HATS minibus; stock image

Friday 4
And fun was had by all. We needed to swap in N’s new PC. This meant she had to clear the rats nest off her desk, and the one under her desk, then play like a rat to crawl under the desk to find where everything plugged in. Having ripped out all the old cables we put the new machine in, with less, and rather tidier, wiring. We had a countless number of various cables left over. We still have to clear up the remains. Oh and having recovered the space on my desk, I can now start work on our new file server.

Sunday 6
The only trouble with spending Friday humping computers etc. around is that I’ve done my back; and it isn’t settling down. It’s probably the old, old injury, but I don’t now have an osteopath. So tomorrow it will be find a new osteopath.

Monday 7
So today we went a-hunting an osteopath – and captured an appointment for late tomorrow afternoon.

Tuesday 8
Hopefully that trip to the osteopath has fixed my back; although it doesn’t quite feel like it yet.

Wednesday 9
This hot, humid weather makes everything hard work; it’s completely draining. But the butterflies like it. In the last couple of days we’ve had Large White, Small White, Brimstone, Red Admiral, Peacock, and Comma on the buddleia outside the dining room window – not as many as there used to be, just odd ones, but better than none.

Sunday 13
We sat down to evening meal, and suddenly there were two small whiskered faces looking up at us. As so often, word had got round amongst the felines that the humans were about to devour cold chicken (well make that any chicken). I think the only thing which out-ranks poultry are prawns – they hear them come in the door!

Monday 14
The evening of the two tarts. (No, not that sort!) We had gooseberries (albeit from the supermarket), we had blackberries from the garden, and we had some very ripe nectarines. We also had two sheets of puff pastry. Sheet one was used flat with gooseberries in a layer on it; no need to pre-cook the fruit, just sprinkle with sugar. Sheet two had blackberries and nectarine piled in the centre and the ends folded over, to make a sort of rustic pie-cum-pasty (again sugar applied). The gooseberry was delicious, still warm, with some cream. Haven’t tried the blackberry yet as it was still too hot. As N said, they’ll make breakfasts for the next several mornings.

Tuesday 15
Rain! We have rain! Only short sharp showers, but it’s water from the sky, which we desperately need. And if you believe the weather forecast we’re likely to have rain on and off for the next week.

Wednesday 16
So the gardener cometh not, which verily was a nuisance as we had lots that needed doing. On the other hand it gave us a “free day” in which to savour the delights of completing this year’s tax returns. And ouch! How much to we owe HMRC?

Thursday 17
It’s been one of those days when everything is a struggle. I wish I understood why this happens – what in the Universe controls it – then I might be able to circumvent it. Otherwise it is very annoying and depressing.

Friday 18
And suddenly there was on my desk a small Common Green Lacewing (Chrysoperla carnea). They’re surprisingly pretty (note the red eyes) – and their larva are great aphid eaters.Lacewing

Saturday 19
A good doctors’ patient group meeting this morning. Only half a dozen of us with the Practice Manager, but sane and sensible considering the recent appalling patient survey results. The Practice Manager and I were both dreading the meeting. Basically something has to happen to improve the front of house, which we’ve been bleating about for ages. Meanwhile: we have rain! Lots of rain! Just as forecast. And badly needed.

Sunday 20
In the kitchen this evening, a very lively ichneumon wasp. I think a Woodland Darwin Wasp (Echthrus reluctator) but I’m sure the experts on iNaturalist will confirm (or not). Also found a very dead, melanistic ladybird; confirmed later on iNaturalist as a melanistic Harlequin.Oh, and this afternoon, three greenfinches in the top of the silver birch. Haven’t seen greenfinches for some years as they’ve been almost wiped out by a virus; so great to see them again.

Monday 21
So what happened to all this rain and thunderstorms we were supposed to be having? Well we had a few heavy drops of rain, but hardly enough to properly wet the pavement.

Tuesday 22
Do other people have days where they just feel totally incapable of doing anything? Because I had one of those days today. Apart from starting the supermarket order, I spent the day fiddling about because I could not get down to do anything. Very irritating.

Friday 25
I’ve spent a large part of the last couple of days striping apart several old laptops and PCs. If nothing else I wanted to get the hard drives out of them so I could clean off the data. I can’t get over what hard work it was to get them apart: hundreds of tiny screws, half of which you can’t move; and then plastic components clipped together and equally recalcitrant. Any way I’ve eventually got them stripped down to recyclable electronic components, several chassis, miscellaneous metal which can also be recycled, and a bin bag full of garbage plastic. All the hard drives have been added to my collection of “spares”; all two dozen of them. Mind, all that work has created almost no free space! Now I’m wondering what we’ve got hidden in the loft!

Sunday 27
Just how did the England girlies manage to win the European football? They never seemed to have been in a winning position, always coming from behind, and then somehow mesmerising the opposition when it came to the penalty shootout. Did they deserve to win? I have no idea. Am I surprised? Yes, very. I guess at the end of the day it all comes down to who has the best self-belief and can keep the cooler head. On that score: well done Lionesses!

Monday 28
Is there no end to the excitement? Today, for both of us, the 6-monthly trip to the dentist for a check-up and the hygienist. Clean bill of health for both of us; so we’re just booked again for January.

Tuesday 29
Rescued this morning, one Harlequin Ladybird, which was trying to drown itself in a sink of soapy water. It seemed to recover OK and, having had a rest, was released outside.

Wednesday 30
It’s a medical week. Dentist on Monday (as above). Audiology for a new hearing test yesterday; followed by a call from my doctor’s to book my annual diabetes check-up. And this afternoon N and I were round at the doctors for a couple of hours – in our patient group capacity to talk to patients in the waiting area. We never talk to many people (most just want to sit and zone out) but the conversations we do have always provide useful feedback. At the same time we tidy up the book exchange and check over the noticeboards etc.

Thursday 31
Today the first sizeable chilli harvest of the year … I picked 15 Hot Lemon chillies; the largest are about 4cm long. OK they’re not huge, and this isn’t a gigantic haul (although we have already had two or three smaller picks), but it’s from two plants crammed in a pot on the study windowsill, and now in their third season.Considering the number chillies, both these and scotch bonnets, we have in the freezer it wouldn’t matter if we never grew another plant. These Hot Lemon Chillies aren’t very hot if you remove the seeds/pith, but if used raw do have a slight citrussy flavour.

personal

Unblogged June

Being some things what I done, or what happened, during the month of June.

Monday 2
Had to unblock the pond pump again today as it is choked with mats of algae, in less than a week.

Tuesday 3
Dear God! It’s relentless. I’m still trying to catch up with everything I didn’t manage to do on Sunday. It mostly revolves around the 25th Anniversary Lunch for AP Soc on Friday – and I’m not even organising it! But the money is flowing through me, so it’s continual questions. Plus I’m expected to take all sorts of stuff like merchandise with me! I seem to have done nothing else for the last week. Heaven alone knows what they’ll do when I’m not here!

Friday 6
Blimey that was a tiring, but worthwhile, day. Celebration lunch for the 25th anniversary of the AP Soc at National Liberal Club. 65 attending, I think, including some well known names as well as some of AP’s extended family. Great to see everyone again, not having done so since before Covid.

Saturday 7
It’s surprising how much better one feels for a really good night’s sleep. I was so shattered after yesterday that I went out like a light, and although I woke up twice in the night I slept through to a few minutes before the alarm. For the first time in ages I woke up not feeling stressed and depressed, but awake and rested. More please!

Monday 9
If it’s happening, I don’t know anything about it. I’m still trying to catch up after Friday and its prologue. So I’ve been paying little attention to the world and its mess.

Tuesday 10
That made an interesting change, and a childhood memory of weekend tea. For a quick light tea this evening, when N got back from the hospital, I had sardines on toast. It’s nutritionally good, and seems very down market until one follows it with strawberries and thick double cream. Of course Queen Cat got a share of both sardines and cream!

Thursday 12
I do not understand couriers. Today I had two boxes of the literary society’s latest book delivered from the printer. Two identical boxes; labelled “1 of 2” and “2 of 2”. They arrived on two different couriers about 30 minutes apart. Mad.

Friday 13
When I sat down to lunch today I felt absolutely fine. By the time I stood up at the end of lunch I had a full-blown attack of vertigo and had to spend the rest of the day horizontal.

Saturday 14
Horizontal.

Sunday 15
Still horizontal.

Monday 16
Vaguely vertical.

Tuesday 17
Finally feeling almost back to normal – or at least I would if I’d actually had a decent night’s sleep. It didn’t help that I had to be up early and spend the morning at the doctors: meeting with Practice Manager, blood test and see my GP. GP agreed there’s not a lot one can do about the vertigo, although she did give me a link to information about the Brandt-Daroff exercises which are supposed to help remove crystals from the semi-circular canals. And the Practice Nurse who took my blood did say that vertigo always takes around 5 days to resolve – which is my experience.

Wednesday 18
Well it’s a medical week. Today I had a pre-op phone call with a nurse at our local private hospital, where in two weeks time I’m having surgery to remove my finally expired molar. I thought, OK this will be a 20 minute check in call. Not a bit of it. She spend nearer an hour and 20 minutes diving down every conceivable rabbit hole – although she didn’t quite get to demanding what my grandmother liked for breakfast. To cap it all she tells me that tomorrow I have to go to the hospital for blood tests and an ECG. Oh joy!

Thursday 19
OK, I know it’s private healthcare but well under an hour to go to the hospital (just a mile up the road), get blood tests and an ECG and get home. Just as well because it was meltingly hot out.

Saturday 21
Spent almost all day sans shirt, although I had to don a t-shirt for a literary society Zoom social call just after lunch. After less than 90 minutes I could have wrung the sweat out of the t-shirt!

Sunday 22
Why does doing simple tasks like putting things in envelopes for the post take so long. OK, I admit I had quite a bit to do to catch up on, but I ended up spending the whole day sorting our literary society stuff: mailing books; website updates; emails … and all the fallout therefrom.

Monday 23
It never rains but there’s a fucking hailstorm. Today, Boy to the V-E-T because his tail is drooping – which can be serious for cats. His tail is normally upright and waving around as if he was a foxhound; but since Friday evening his tail was drooping and he couldn’t hold it above horizontal. The vet found a puncture wound a the base of his tail (top and bottom); probably inflicted by another cat rather than the fox. So antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory for several days.

Tuesday 24
Gone 19:00 and I’m about to have tea when I pick up a phone call. It turns out to be the anaesthetist who’s on the team for my op next week. A 20 minutes discussion results in him saying he’ll do the op with sedation and local anaesthetic. If they can pull it off, that’s a definite result, because if I had a general anaesthetic (as originally planned) they will keep me in overnight; but with sedation they won’t. Not only much nicer but also a lot more convenient.

Thursday 26
Another result today. Had to go to Audiology at the local hospital to (a) have wax vacuumed out of my ears, and (b) take one hearing aid in for repair. The young lady who manages the centre, and does the ear vacuuming, was incredibly helpful. Having cleared my ears, she said “Oh I’ll repair your hearing aid now; it’ll take only five minutes”. In fact she actually replaced the hearing aid as the volume control had died. Job done and I’m out before the end of my appointment slot; with no need for another trip to collect the repaired device. A definite win.

Saturday 28
Something worth recording, although a bit out of sequence … I’ve had two rather nice raptor sightings recently, both new for me. First, several times over recent weeks I’ve seen a very swift-like raptor (but noticeably bigger than swift) jinking across the gardens. It has to be a hobby. I know they used to be around because local bird-watchers have told me about them. Secondly, on Thursday sitting outside Ealing Hospital one of their peregrines was flying around: practicing doing circuits; before disappearing behind the top of the building. It could have been one of this year’s young, although they should long have fledged. We know the peregrines nest there (and have done for several years) but I’ve never spotted one before.

Sunday 29
This afternoon I unloaded all the images from my trail cameras from the last three weeks – all 6500 of them – eeekkk! Well 20-30% were complete rubbish; just foliage waving in the breeze! Another 50% were the usual boring stuff: cats and foxes trotting hither and yon. But there were a couple of surprises. First one early morning at the birdbath there was a collared dove; no it’s a juvenile woodpigeon; oh no it isn’t it really is a collared dove. I thought I’d heard one around; but I’ve never before seen one here. Then a few days ago, again early morning, lucky Mr Fox is seen trotting off down the garden with a woodpigeon in his jaws; I saw not the catching, so I can only think the stupid bird hopped into his jaws.

Monday 30
Bugger! Had to cancel my dental op on Wednesday. Just don’t ask.

Sorry, no photos this month as everything has just been too manic.

personal, ramblings

Unblogged May

Some things to be recorded, or that happened, during the month and which I’ve not otherwise blogged about.

Thursday 1
Phew! 1 May and it is unseasonably hot even for mid-summer. We’ve hot around 28°C today, which is almost 10° above the average for May. The hottest ever recorded temperature in central London was 32.8°C in 1922 and 1944 – and that was towards the end of the month. Apparently this is the hottest London May Day on record. The Met Office are saying the previous UK record temperature on 1 May was 27.4°C in 1990 at Lossiemouth, Scotland.

Friday 2
Today we completed the next set of 50 Postcrossing cards: numbers 301-350. Here they are on the display board.postcards on a pinboard

Sunday 4
Gah! I’ve had one of those days. Pond pumps both choked full of algae which took an hour to clean out. Then the credit card company decided to block my main card as they didn’t like me putting through two transactions for mobile phone top-ups within minutes. And guess what – they can’t unblock it until office hours on Tuesday. Nor can I file a complaint until Tuesday either. Very not impressed.

Tuesday 6
Why do hospital trips take up so much time and energy? I went with N today to her consultant’s appointment, which was booked for 13:00. We left home about 12:15, and I finally arrived back at home at 15:00, the actual appointment having lasted no more than 20 minutes. Mind, I did stop for a sausage sandwich, and spent a very pleasant 20 minutes sitting outside in the sun while waiting to be picked up.

Thursday 8
That was a quick Conclave; they usually take far longer than 2 days. And we have an American Pope; albeit one who has served most of his priesthood in South America. This surprised me – and many others. I had expected the new Pope to be from either Africa or SE Asia; and to be a traditionalist rather than a progressive. So this could all be interesting.

Sunday 11
We moan when it’s wet. So now I’m going to moan about how dry it’s been. So dry that everything outside needed a good watering. Hopefully tomorrow the gardener will manage to get the watering system up and working.

Monday 12
The gardener did come, and did get the watering system set up – just before the thunderstorm. Really heavy rain for about 15 minutes, including some hail. But it is still horribly humid.

Tuesday 13
I woke up with vertigo. Not very bad, but bad enough to put a spanner in the works. Took some ibuprofen and took the day easy; and it went away during the day. It can just stay gone away! As one friend said to me: “So I’m not the only one waking up with a hangover without having a drink the previous night?”

Wednesday 14
I fell over in the kitchen this evening, as I stumbled against the stool and didn’t have anything solid I could grab onto. But I did have enough that as I fell, back down, I was able to descend relatively safely and not crack my head on the tiled floor. But getting up was a real problem as my (replaced) knees won’t kneel, I had nothing helpful to hold onto, and a non-grippy floor. I managed it eventually, but not without having to kneel and really hurt my knees and toes. This is my second fall this week, although the first could have happened to anyone. On Sunday, in the garden, I needed to sit low down to fiddle with the trail camera. But my weight sitting on an upturned bucket doesn’t work, it collapsed and I tipped gently backwards. Getting up from that was easy as I could roll over, put minimal weight on one knee, and had a grippy lawn for foot grip. We’ll not have a third, thank you!

Thursday 15
Pleased today to have a couple of very pretty but unexpected flowers on my dendrobium orchid.purple dendrobium orchid flowers

Saturday17
Really really good meeting of GP’s patient group this morning. As expected I was asked to continue as Chairman. Lots of good discussion and feedback from our Practice Manager. I do sense a greater openness and less defensiveness, which is good.

Sunday18
A day of doing absolutely nothing except piddling about, because I couldn’t do anything more. I’ve been very depressed the last few days, so I was even less inclined than usual to do anything – especially as I could not wake up and it was gone 10:30 before I managed to rouse myself and get vertical (which I hate). The last two nights being full of anxiety dreams hasn’t helped at all – you know, the usual dream stuff: losing people in a crowd, exams, work. I wish I knew how to get rid of all this.

Monday19
Oh bugger! N has been suffering over the last few days with a filthy cold which seems to be going round her treatment centre. So of course I now have it: the usual cold, sinus problems, headache and some vertigo too. I was obviously starting it yesterday, which would explain my inability and why it persisted through today. This is the first really filthy cold I’ve had for several years. Luckily N felt up to taking two of the cats to the vet for treatment; I feel guilty for ducking my part of the exercise but I couldn’t face the car journeys. Fortunately the gardener cancelled which took some of the pressure off.

Wednesday21
Still struggling with this cold, which makes the depression worse, so I’ve done nothing much for the last few days. I keep thinking “One good night’s sleep will see it off”, but it hasn’t yet – although it is slowly receding. At least I don’t (yet?) have the awful chesty cough that N still has – and I would appreciate not having it, thank you.

Friday23
“Have you thought what you want to eat this evening” I say to N late in the afternoon.
“No not really” she says, “probably just a sandwich. What do you want?”
“What’s important is what you want; you’re the one who’s struggling. But I’m tired of eating sandwiches.”
I’m thinking, when did we last cook a decent meal; we seem to be eating bread and something for lunch and dinner every day.
“Well, we could have pizza” she says. “At least it’ll give you something hot.”
So I order pizza – it’s our one (occasional) concession to fast food and ready meals.

Saturday 24
Yesterday’s pizza was a damn good move. Two large pizzas not only fed us last night, but lunch today and a picnic evening meal when N got back from the hospital.

Sunday 25
Yum, yum. Two packs of very good meaty pork ribs for evening meal. Marinaded overnight with brown sauce, garlic, tomato etc.; and oven baked on a baking sheet so they were nice and sticky. Served with lots of roast vegetables (an excellent way to use anything getting a little tired). And there’s enough for a quick tea tomorrow.

Monday26
It’s another bank holiday, so of course it is wet – but at least it was forecast. Luckily the rain held off until mid-afternoon, as the gardener came. He had to spend too long clearing algae from the main pond pump; I should have done this but couldn’t get past the depression, and moreover I could not work out how the casing came apart (turns out it needs a screwdriver!).

Friday30
Couriers are the pits. I have a fairly expensive package coming from Italy. It’s been consigned to UPS; originally for delivery today. Now UPS are normally one of the better couriers; but this time they decide to deliver the package early: yesterday afternoon. Except that they didn’t. They claim they tried and there was nobody here – not true because I was here. So they try again today, with the same result; although this time both of us were here. Now they say we’ll try again, a third time, on the next business day (apparently tomorrow) but if we fail again the package will be returned to the sender. At this point I wonder if they’re trying the wrong address, or not leaning hard enough on the doorbell. Having fought UPS’s website, I call customer services. The young lady says: yes I can see that; and OK so it does take you time to get to the door; I’ll talk to the depot; they may ring you. Soon after a young lady rings me from the depot; I explain again. Oh, she says, I can see what’s happened: it’s been put on the wrong van so the driver should have logged it as a sorting error, but instead logged a failed delivery; I will talk to the warehouse to ensure it gets on the right van, and it is flagged for delivery tomorrow between 9 and 12. I’m guessing there’s a driver who’s going to get a rocket. In fairness, both young ladies were very helpful and owned the problem; 10/10 for their customer service. We’ll see what happens tomorrow; because if they try and fail again, and send the package back to Italy, I shall be very annoyed indeed.

Saturday31
Well my package from Italy did arrive, and in the time slot they said. Judging from all the mangled labels on it, it really has been round the houses to get here.

amusements, personal

Unblogged April

Being my usual round up of things what I done this month but didn’t previously write about.

Tuesday 1
It’s literary society year end. As I do the memberships, I bring in most of the money, so my finances have to be reconciled. And all the subscriptions are due, so there’s a mountain of that to process. It’s going to be manic for the rest of this week, at least.

Thursday 3
N has now been going to the hospital 3 times a week for almost a year, and today was the first time that her hospital transport got royally buggered up. Apparently someone cancelled it; they hadn’t; there was a name confusion. The upshot was that instead of being picked up about 12:00 for a 13:00 clinic, she finally left home just before 15:00. This well screwed everything for both of us.

Friday 4
This evening, a variant on our infinitely adaptable “all in one” salad; and even more variable as I did us separate bowls of salad because N is having to be more careful about diet. We had the end of last weekend’s roast chicken: not a lot; and it needed recooking. So I chucked the pieces in a frying pan and sizzled them until crisp. Put together with some steamed early English asparagus, croutons, cherry tomatoes and red chiccory. A tasty quick dinner.salad in a bowl

Sunday 6
I don’t believe it! We already have a few flowers on one of our small (eating) apple trees; it shouldn’t really be out for another 3-4 weeks! There’s also flowers on the ornamental crab, but that’s less surprising as it is always early. And the columnar crab isn’t very far behind.

Monday 7
Why are ears such a pain? Not content with having wax in my right ear, I woke this morning with both ears bunged solid and unable to hear anything. It cleared a bit after a hot shower, but it was even so just not worth wearing my hearing aids, partly due to the discomfort and partly as they weren’t going to do a lot of good. And of course, it’s miserable. It’s not as if I don’t put olive oil in my ears regularly to keep the wax soft, as medically advised.

Wednesday 9
It’s all good fun. So they tell me anyway. I finally got fed up with trying to clear my ears and, after much searching, found a sensible place to get them vacuumed. Private, of course; trying to get it done on the NHS with any speed is a lost cause. So I book for tomorrow, although inconvenient. And afterwards find I’ve booked the same young lady that did my ears about 18 months ago, somewhere totally different.
No sooner had I done that than my most nuisanceful crown came off! So I now also have a dentist appointment on Friday morning. If this doesn’t end up with an extraction I’ll be very lucky – we know here’s not a lot of tooth left to fix a crown to. Well that buggered up any plans for the rest of the week. It never rains but there’s a flood.

Thursday 10
Blimey! Talk about efficient. I went for my ear hoovering this morning. 11:30 appointment. I arrived at 11:10. Seen straight away and out in 10 minutes. Job done. Home by midday having waited 20 minutes to be picked up. It isn’t half nice to be able to hear properly again, and not have uncomfortable ears.
And it’s been a lovely sunny day; all the trees are bursting into leaf, so everywhere is splodges of bright green new leaves – and apple blossom.

Friday 11
Trip to the dentist to see about my crown. And exactly as expected, young miss dentist says there’s nothing more she can do with it as there’s not enough tooth left to fix a crown to. So the tooth has to come out. And that means a referral to a specialist as (apart from being an awkward back tooth) it has at least one curved root which could cause problems. That’ll be a lot more ouch of the wallet, unless we can swing it as surgical and claim it on the medical insurance. Fun here, innit!

Saturday 12
And now all our apple trees are in full bloom, all at the same time which is most unusual (but what should happen). However there’s not a pollinator in sight; they should be buzzing with bees, flies, wasps. So it looks like it’s going to be a bad year. It’s not really surprising there are few insects around after last year’s poor summer and a very wet winter.

Sunday 13
During last week the guy next door to me had the fence between us replaced, which is fine as the deeds say it’s his fence. They were said to be putting in concrete posts and gravel-boards and it would take 2½ days. Knowing his propensity for employing cheap cowboy workmen I wasn’t hopeful. They started on Thursday morning and broke the back of the job by mid-afternoon; it was finished before lunch on Friday. They appeared to know what they were doing, and I know my neighbour is as well aware of the law on boundaries as I am. So I decided to leave them alone, not interfere, and trust them. This seems to have paid off. They look to have done a good job and respected the boundary line. Very pleasing.

Tuesday 15
Over the last two days council contractors have been resurfacing our road. So, I’m sure much to the annoyance of our neighbours, the road has been closed during the day. It’s been intermittently noisy, of course. I’m not knowledgeable enough to know how good a job they’ve done, but they do seem to have done the right things. When we were told this was going to happen, I was sceptical. I thought: “the council will do it cheaply and they’ll just have the contractor put 2cm of black-top on what’s already there, despite that the kerbs, manhole covers etc. will need resetting”. But no, they spent all of yesterday taking the top (maybe 4-5cm) layer of old tarmac off; and today they’ve laid the new. I don’t know if they’ve finished it all – apart from they’ll have to come back to replace the speed bumps and road marking. I wonder how long that will take?

Wednesday 16
The surreal sight of a small flatbed truck proceeding up the road with 8 stands of temporary traffic lights (upright) on the back. What a shame they weren’t also working!

Thursday 17
Lo and behold! The guys have finished the road. Bumps and white lines all replaced. Unexpectedly speedy!

Friday 18
As yesterday was Saturday, is today Saturday, Sunday or Noneday?

Wednesday 23
St George’s Day and we should all be out celebrating – not that we English do that. Instead of which it’s wet most of the day, although there were a couple of bits of sunshine. But the good news is that we have our first roses out: on Lady Hillingdon, of course.

Thursday 24
N appears by me this morning and says: “By the way I just found a large dead rat on the hall floor; I put it out by the gate so the fox can retrieve it”. Judging by the size she indicated it was getting on for 20cm in the body; certainly a decent size. Curiously none of the cats confessed to owning said rodent.

Friday 25
Last weekend I got the renewal for the house insurance. Bloody Hell! How can they justify raising the annual premium from £535 to £912? So during the week I’ve had a quick look around and found quotes in the £700 region – but it is impossible to compare like for like as every policy is (not so) subtly different. So I called my current insurers. Yes, says the young lady, the underwriters have increased all the premiums and everyone is complaining! What can we do to reduce the premium? Not a lot except increase the excess we pay if we claim (which to be honest is much lower than I thought it was). We do that and at least get the premium down to £776 – which is better, even if not good. The alternative is to start a new policy, probably with less good terms, and frankly I can’t be bothered to go through all the hassle. So this afternoon I paid up. At least it will get us a good dollop of points on the credit card which will get turned into gift vouchers.

Saturday 26
The Pope died last Monday, and his funeral was this morning. So, as much as any are, he’s an important world leader, but is that really an excuse for showing hours of the funeral live on prime TV? It’s not as if we’re a Catholic country. Will the BBC do the same for the Dalai Lama? I bet they don’t.

Monday 28
Three cats to the V-E-T this morning for their annual check-up and jabs. Luckily our black cabbie friend was available as that’s the easiest way to carry all three cats in their individual carriers; they’ll all stand on the floor – it’s almost impossible in a saloon car. Anyway …

  • Boy is good and has put back the weight he lost last year; he’s now back to 5.5kg.
  • Rosie is also good but is now 6.2kg and getting decidedly rotund, although the vet is unconcerned. However she does needs her teeth cleaning.
  • Tilly has lost weight and is down to 3.9kg from her previous 4.55kg 2 years ago. So the vet took some blood; results this afternoon indicate elevated liver function, so the tests need repeating in a couple of weeks.

All that made a nice big dent in the credit card, with more to come! And we’re totally exhausted!

Tuesday 29
The buggers! Someone has knocked the nestbox out of the oak tree this afternoon; it’s on the garden path. Very annoying as I know the blue tits were using it. It was on the trunk and quite high up, so almost certainly out of the reach of cats. So one suspects either magpie or squirrel; although parakeet is just possible – or I suppose crow (unlikely with the magpies always around in the adjacent silver birch) or woodpecker (even less likely as I rarely see one). Nothing one can do, alas!

Wednesday 30
Yes, confirming that the magpies do have a nest in the silver birch. It is well hidden from our view by all the ivy and rose cambering through the tree. But at lunchtime I saw one go into the nest, and apparently settle down; then a couple of minutes later the second came along. What was interesting is that they have their own private track through the boscage; they both used exactly the same hops from branch to branch over the last metre or so to the nest.

amusements, personal

Unblogged March

Being, as usual, some various things from this month about what I never wrote before.

Saturday 1
St David’s Day. And I’ve heard nothing about it at all this year. So have some Spring sunshine …daffodils

Sunday 2
In the alley, at the back of next-door-but-one’s garden, is a reasonably sized, bare, tree. Every evening when it’s sunny the local pair of magpies sit in the top of the tree getting the last of evening sun and getting warm for the night. And doubtless keeping a beady eye open for stray snacks. Who blames them.

Tuesday 4
This evening, 18:30, it’s pitch dark. And the robin is singing away somewhere in the garden. Mind it’s been a lovely sunny day; it almost feels like Spring, especially as I’ve had the window open.

Sunday 9
Very annoying. We have a pile of stuff to get rid of: like dead PC printers and a couple of boxes of miscellaneous metal/electronic recycling; 6 items in all. Just after lunch today we put it all together on the front path, I photographed it and booked the council to collect it on Wednesday – cost £48. Within 2 hours 4 of the 6 items had been magicked away by some slithy toves, leaving just 2 boxes of crap. Just to run salt in the wound, not only will the council not let me cancel the request, nor provide a refund, but I can’t even email them to say “don’t bother”. So they’re now going to have a rather wasted trip; and we’ve wasted £48.

In better news, it was a lovely sunny day, so I decided to feed the pond fish. At first we’re not interested. Then one realises there’s something floating to investigate. Oh, Fred, did you say something about food? Another joins, and another … until most were having at least a snack.

Friday 14
It’s been a deadly week, absolutely swamped with work, mostly for the literary society. In the words of Marvin, the Paranoid Android: “Life. Don’t talk to me about life.”

Saturday 15
Last evening, in bed, something unusual happened. Boy Cat came along. Instead of settling down on top of N, as usual, he snuggled, sausage-like, between us, head at chest level. He then spent 5-10 minutes purring and kneading my armpit. I think in almost 8 years it’s the first time he’s done this; kneading is normally reserved for N.

Sunday 16
A few surprises walking round the garden today. I knew the small bush flowering cherry was in bloom. But I’d not spotted that we had a couple of blue hyacinths out, nor that the flowering currants (Ribes) were just coming into bloom. Lots of leaves breaking on the roses, but none of the trees are yet showing any signs of life.

Monday 17
The gardener came. So did the central heating guy – to look at a radiator which needed bleeding and I couldn’t shift the valve. It needed a completely new valve fitting; which in turn needed a load of stuff moving. Job done. Whereupon the gardener and the heating man had a long talk; they’re old friends and haven’t seen each other for several years. You try getting an Irishman and an Albanian to stop talking!

Friday 21
So Heathrow Airport is out of power and closed – because of a fire at an electricity substation. (I’ve been past that substation hundreds of times, and it is huge! It’s also an open target from the nearby road bridge.) Why do they not have twin-tailed power supplies? They should have at least two connections, on opposite sides of the airport. Both should be supplying power 24/7; and each should be able to automatically pick up the slack if the other fails. That’s normal resilient business operation for critical systems. Not having it is either negligence or a political decision not to spend the money. Whichever it is, someone needs their dangly bits feeling. Having contingency backup that takes time to kick in is not acceptable. I wonder if they’ll be made to pay all the airports who took diverted flights – and, of course, passenger compensation?

Saturday 22
It’s just relentless at present; a continual stream of work on every front; so there’s much that isn’t getting done. Still we had a really good social call for the literary society at lunchtime; only 9 of us but that included one from each of US, Japan, Ireland and France; with an hour or so of interesting discussion. We started with one person in Putney and I (so 8 miles apart as the crow flies) sharing that it wasn’t raining; we ended with the news that it had just started raining in Putney, but not here. Minutes later we started a good thunderstorm!

Sunday 23
The forsythia is in flower. This seems early; I always associate it with May not March.

Wednesday 26
What a wonderful warm sunny Spring day – it really does make one feel much better! Several of the local trees are beginning to burst their buds: ash, silver birch, hawthorn, horse chestnut. The cherry bush in the front garden is an absolute mass of flower; I don’t think I’ve ever seen it with so much blossom. Oh and something obviously had a woodpigeon last night: three significant piles of feathers on the lawn, so it was well plucked. Two of the three below; the third was quite widely scattered.plucked woodpigeon feathers on grassplucked woodpigeon feathers on grass

Friday 28
For the first time since before Covid I had a check-up at the Brompton Hospital for my sleep apnoea. I didn’t need it, but they’re trying to make sure they’ve seen everyone who got postponed. Overall result: Excellent. Modern machines record all the data, so they can download it (I can also get most of it) and the data is good; mostly over 90%. The young lady (Registrar I guess) was fairly delighted. So they’ve put me on the Patient Initiated Follow-up pathway: this means they’ll not call me in for another 5 years, but in the meantime if I feel I need a check-up (or technical support) then I have only to ask. This is a new NHS process which saves a lot of pointless appointments, patient inconvenience, and consultant time; so they can clear the backlogs and get to see those in urgent need much sooner. It has to be win-win all round.

Saturday 29
It’s being one of those days! Even before I’d got down to doing anything this morning, three things had SNAFUed on me. Then the Waitrose delivery was over an hour early! Why do these things happen?
And did anyone notice that we had a partial solar eclipse this morning? I knew it was going to happen, but it was so low-key that it had gone before I noticed! I always seem to miss these things.

Sunday 30
What a glorious, warm Spring day. The pond fish are hungry. The catkins on the silver birch are just starting to break. And the garden is awash with gorgeous sun-yellow celandines – I knew we had some, but didn’t realise quite how much they’d spread themselves around; there are little clumps everywhere, as well as a couple of large patches.yellow celandine flower amongst green leavespatch of celandines: small yellow flower and green leaves

Monday 31
So here we are at the end of March, and in terms of months a quarter of the way through the year already. Although we need another day or two to get to 25% in terms of the number of days. Still, at least, it’s beginning to look and feel like Spring.

amusements, personal

Unblogged February

Diary-type thoughts on what occurred around here which weren’t otherwise written about

Saturday 1
Today I was reminded that the traditional Korean equivalent of “once upon a time” is “back when tigers used to smoke”. I’ve always puzzled as to why?

Sunday 2
Spring is on the way. There’s a nice, but small, drift of pale lilac crocuses in the lawn.[Later in the month the lawn was just a mass of crocuses.]

Monday 3
Excellent Zoom meeting this evening for a reading group for Anthony Powell’s 12 novel series A Dance to the Music of Time (one book a month). This was the first meeting so we were discussing A Question of Upbringing. It’s being run by an American literarist, so it’s not an AP Society event, although we’re supporting it and about a third of those present were Society members. Of the rest quite a few were newcomers to Powell. It’s good because it is making many of us old lags reread the books, again!book cover

Wednesday 5
I was woken this morning by the Rosie cat lying between us purring like a Harley-Davidson. I stretched out an arm to stroke her, whereupon she decided I needed a wash. She started at my left armpit and over 10-15 minutes worked her way down to the inside of my left elbow. She spent so long on my elbow that her wonderful raspy tongue made it quite sore and has left a rather red abrasion!sore arm

Thursday 6
We gave in and ordered pizza!

Saturday 8
Making coffee in the kitchen this afternoon when through the catdoor comes Rosie. She leaves several trails of superb wet and muddy pawprints, very neatly formed, across the floor. Back at my desk, it is covered in muddy pawmarks; not Rosie as she had followed me, so I suspect Tilly. And that’ll be the second time today I’ve had to wipe down my desk.

Sunday 9
Checking the pond today. Lots of big chubby goldfish. But the ground was like a marsh.

Monday 10
Trip to the dentist for the four predicted fillings. Remarkably she managed to do all four in the one (long) appointment, so I don’t have to go again in a couple of weeks time – result! The credit card is still smarting a bit though – although when you think about what the cost has to pay for it’s not that unreasonable.

Tuesday 11
What an incredibly useful session this morning meeting patients at the doctors, where we do twice monthly “Meet the Patients” sessions. First up a very sensible conversation with couple of black guys, one who’d been in the police for 20 years. Then an old boy of 90 who had walked up the hill to find he was there the wrong day; we listened to him grumble about the NHS for half an hour – after which my colleague very nicely gave him a lift home. And finally a very nice lady taxi driver to run me home who also turned out to be a relatively new patient at our surgery, so we compared notes about the doctors. Overall it felt like a good outreach session.

Thursday 13
Well I was warned. At the hospital today for some blood tests in the new, purpose built, centre. And it’s dreadful. It’s an absolute rabbit warren of corridors, corners and doors. With almost no signage, and half of what there is consists of sheets of paper blu-tacked to the wall. And when you get to the right place the décor is a sunny-ish yellow and sick green. Worse the green area (an alcove) is decorated in four slightly different shades of sick green: floor, wall below the dado, wall above the dado and the seating; none is a nice colour. This is juxtaposed with the yellow area and a plum red area. GOK how anyone can work in it.

Friday 14
Valentines Day, and I got told off because I’d bought her a present when she hadn’t bought me one. It’s a tough life!

Saturday 15
Late this evening I was reading an article in New Scientist about when babies brains develop an integrated consciousness of the world. [https://rb.gy/puso5n] And I suddenly had a memory which I’d totally forgotten. I remembered having a “rattle” consisting of several hard plastic shapes on a string; pieces of different sizes and colours. Now this must have been quite early, as I have no later memory of this toy. I’d completely forgotten it. The memory was just a single still photographic image and fairly indistinct. I don’t think my brain was making up the memory, but durable coloured plastic in the early 1950s seems somewhat unlikely (though not impossible). Unfortunately I no longer have my mother to ask.

Sunday 16
Following on from yesterday’s entry … isn’t the mind strange. So I was minding nothing while washing a houseplant saucer this afternoon and my mind suddenly reminded me about a girl I knew over 45 years ago. She was a colleague; never even close to being a girlfriend – although I think we all fancied her. She sat next to me on our final qualifying sales course, wearing a pale blue, floaty, low cut, summer frock and no bra. But why does she suddenly pop into my mind now, and for no reason, when I’ve not thought about her in ages and ages? I always wonder where these people are now.

Tuesday 18
My dendrobium is in full flower. It’s clearly thriving on benign neglect, although it’s been on the study windowsill getting whatever sun there is, occasional water, and over a radiator. I caught a grumpy-looking Tilly cat was sitting in front of it.tilly cat with dendrobium

Saturday 22
Absolutely snowed with work. Loads for both literary society (mostly website related) and the doctor’s patient group. Not a chance to do anything else this week or next, and probably the one after.

Sunday 23
Who would have guessed that foxes like pickled herrings and also cream cheese? Earlier in the week they demolished the remains of the duck (mostly just bone and fat) we had last weekend too – except for the orange we’d cooked with it!
In other news we seem to have this one, lone, dark grey feral pigeon; and only very occasionally a second – very odd because there are many others around.

Monday 24
Came the gardener (aka. odd job man) today. Despite the marsh which is the garden he went an filled the bird feeders just before lunch. By teatime one of the peanut feeders was already half empty! Oh and we agreed on a count of 22 goldfish.

Tuesday 25
And it rained again all night and most of the morning. Our garden is just a swamp, with a large area of casual water – larger, I think, than I’ve ever seen it before. The photo gives you an idea: the area outlined in yellow largely under water, despite us having raised the ground a couple of inches.garden under waterIt’s not really surprising as we think there was probably an old field ditch running across the gardens about where the blue line is. There seems to be a little spring next door to the left. There is definitely water there as we’ve dowsed it, and it runs left to right (downhill) in the photo. The houses were built in 1930 on what was fields, and I bet the builders just bulldozed their rubble in to fill the field ditch and dumped a bit of topsoil on it. If the area where the ditch probably is wasn’t a mass of tree roots, I’d play archaeologist and dig a test pit to find out.

Thursday 27
I was hoping to receive my 300th Postcrossing card before the end of the month, and the three which arrived today hit the target. So here is the board of cards 251 to 300.cork board with 50 postcards

Friday 28
So here endeth February, and somehow we’re already 16% of the way through the year. On 14 March there’ll be 20% of the year gone. How?

amusements, personal

Unblogged January

1 Comment

Diary-type thoughts on what occurred around here which weren’t otherwise written about.

Wednesday 1
I find it mysterious that I awoke this morning to find an empty champagne bottle in the bedroom wastepaper bin. Such decadence! Happy New Year!

Thursday 2
So the weather people have issued a weather warning for snow and ice (maybe someone needs to explain to them that snow is ice!) over the weekend – and for some much colder days and nights. What are the odds of us getting snow here in suburban west London? In my estimation approximately zero ± a gnat’s testicle. We’ll see; I could be wrong.

Friday 3
It was a nice sunny day, but they weren’t wrong about the cold. Bright sunshine and good light even at 15:30; pitch dark by 16:30.

Sunday 5
The squirrels are cheeky little monkeys; you can quite see why they’re so successful. Over the months they’ve created large holes in the mesh at the bottom of the peanut feeder outside the dining room window; I’m surprised the bottom hasn’t fallen out! Lunchtime today the feeder was almost empty and there was our chubby squirrel raiding it. There’s so little wire that said squirrel was getting a paw in the feeder to retrieve whole nuts – a bit like a cat feeling under the bed for their lost mouse.
Oh and we got a bit of snow last evening: rain turned to ice and then came snow; just enough to make things white. It had gone by morning to be replaced by rain and fog; the former continued persistently all day so by dark-fall we had half the garden under casual water.

Monday 6
I gave in and had my annual pre-birthday haircut and shower.

Friday 10
This week from the supermarket we have tangerines from Tangier … possibly. They’re certainly from Morocco. They’re rays of sunshine at the end of a cold, dull week. Today has only just crept above freezing having been around -6°C last night – and early this evening it is already around -4°C so we’re going to get another cold night. Indeed apart from roughly midday Sunday to sunrise Monday when it was relatively warm and wet, no day in the last week has got up to 5°C. And this is in the relative warmth of suburban west London!

Saturday 11
So that was a birthday, was it? N was at the hospital. I spent the day in the study doing paperwork & admin for various projects, and getting cold because I was resisting putting the heating back on. I work on the basis that it’s known that if you’re too hot you burn extra calories to keep cool, so it stands to reason that if you’re cold you’ll burn extra calories to keep warm – and after all I have plenty of calories to burn!

Sunday 12
Birthday part 2. Again, apart from 15 minutes doing bits outside, I spent the day mostly working on various projects, although I did have a good lay-in. Finished off with cold smoked chicken, new potatoes & fennel slaw, followed by strawberries & cream; all washed down with a bottle of champagne and a liqueur. End result = fairly incapable! Hic!

Wednesday 15
So I look out of the study window this morning and the trees in the garden are full of green parakeets. Count 16. 2 minutes later, count 18. Another 2 minutes, count 21. The final count got to 23! I think that’s a record for us. It’s no wonder N is having to refill the feeders every other day – what with the parakeets, tits, and at least 3 squirrels.

Thursday 16
Somewhere in the house the cats have lost a dead mouse. I can smell it, but not trace it. Gah!

Friday 17
They’re Moroccan and they’re whoppers! Most girls would be proud of them. [Spoiler: see a week ago.]

Saturday 18
Does anyone else have weird, byzantine, waking dreams? This morning my dream was a mixture of travel by taxi or given a lift by a colleague from two adjacent work locations, through a mixture of (London) suburbs, some rebuilt some not; to a big hospital where I was having regular bits of minor (but internal, abdominal) surgery. I think the consultant was one I’ve seen before who has done a couple of colonoscopies for me. And … I was also having dental treatment with my actual dentist in some rather dilapidated Edwardian rooms which were part of the same hospital. I was having to scuttle from one to the other, and trying to arrange appointments. The culmination was this complex dental work on a Saturday (my real dentist is Jewish so doesn’t work on a Saturday!), which involved not just my dentist, but also another dental consultant and an anaesthetist, all together. GOK what it was all about – other than anxiety!

Sunday 19
David the Pond Man came to do a much delayed late autumn overhaul. Blimey he drained the whole pond (the fish were put in a holding tank) and said he removed 2 inches of muck from the bottom. The saved water from two holding tanks went back in; and by dark-fall the hose had refilled the pond about ⅓ – quite enough for the fish and putting the pumps back on (we’ll refill the rest tomorrow, but God help the water bill!). But lo-and-behold, we still have 21 goldfish, which means we’ve not lost any in 2½ years; and they’re now big chunky goldfish which started out as tiny fingerlings.

Monday 20
Make that 22 goldfish.

Wednesday 22
It’s been one of those days where everything either conspires to be difficult, or actually goes tits up. In fact it was one of those days before I even got out of bed this morning. But I take consolation in that I’m not the only one suffering this today.

Friday 24
I still haven’t finished refilling the pond. It’s ⅔ full and filter running so should be OK. But I’ve declined to brave the rain, the lake on the path, and the mud to venture forth. This weather is driving us all up the wall. Can we actually manage to go a week without a major storm? So we consoled ourselves this evening with sausage and chips.

Saturday 25
There must be something wrong! I actually spent most of the afternoon reading.

Sunday 26
Cometh the gardener. He thinks he’s going to finish refilling the pond for me. Why bother? It is pissing with rain. And within an hour the garden is awash with casual water, again. Oh and the gardener thinks we have 23 goldfish – so one of us can’t count!

Monday 27
This afternoon, the usual twice yearly dental check-up etc. And as I was warned last time I need a raft of work done: at least 4 fillings, mostly because the existing fillings are beginning to fail. Well one of those fillings is old amalgam, so it must be 25+ years old. That’s going to hurt the wallet! I might have to have a replacement crown too, but at least for the moment that can has been kicked down the road, so even more cost postponed. It’s all surprisingly draining, even though I don’t actually mind going to the dentist.

Tuesday 28
Well if I pissed him off, it’s just too bad. Tell me on Monday evening that I have a meeting on Tuesday afternoon, and that I’m supposed to know about it, when this is the first I’ve heard? Don’t be surprised if I say “no”, followed by “and not this week”. A lack of planning (or attention to detail) on your part does not constitute a crisis on mine.

Wednesday 29
I had to chuckle this afternoon when we at the doctors doing outreach work. One of the young lady clinicians (not one of the doctors or nurses) was wearing black patent, very pointed, slightly upturned shoes, which reminded me of medieval poulaines – although not as exaggerated; more akin to 1960s winkle-pickers. I said to her that I liked her medieval shoes; she said she called them her Pied Piper shoes!

poulaines1960s winkle-pickers
Medieval poulaines (top) and 1960s winkle-pickers (bottom)

Friday 31
I’ve just tried some seaweed crisps. My advice: don’t!

amusements, personal

Unblogged December

Being some of the things that happened, but which I didn’t otherwise write about. Not every day, as foretold last month.

Sunday 1
Just what is it that screws up the universe? Both N and I have had one of those days, where everything has gone wrong, not worked, fallen on the floor, got tangled, or otherwise buggered up. Apart from wasting time and stuff, it is not good for the blood pressure. Why is it like this?

Monday 2
More garden bird fun today. While we were eating lunch a jay appeared on the peanut feeder a few feet outside the dining room window; I wasn’t too surprised as I had seen it fly across the garden a few minutes earlier. It had a good feed, went away, came back … Of course the green parakeets were around as well, and took exception to the jay. On one occasion a parakeet saw the jay off the feeder; the jay having flown into the top of the ballerina crab apple, was then bombed, quite deliberately, by another parakeet and displaced again. The parakeets were defending their feeder against this jay, and despite the jay being a bit bigger they were winning. This went on for a good 15-20 minutes, interspersed with visits from the squirrel and at least one great tit. Meanwhile another two squirrels were chasing each other, nose to tail, to and again across the middle of the garden. All highly amusing to watch.

Friday 6
I got some tangerines in this week’s supermarket order. Real tangerines. None of this satsuma rubbish. They’re absolutely wonderful: sweet, flavourful and not a mouthful of membrane. They’re a good size too. Just as they should be. It is a real change to find some citrus which is worth eating these days.
And while we were eating lunch there were squirrels running about the garden as if they’re on speed or something. One is quite podgy, so I guess could be pregnant although it’s not showing any signs of nipples and it’s a bit too early as they generally don’t start giving birth until late-February after a gestation of 45-ish days. So maybe we just have a Billy Bunter squirrel.

Saturday 7
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain … For the rain it raineth every day.

Monday 9
Blimey creatures! Yesterday afternoon the seed and peanut bird feeders were refilled, to the brim. A combination of mostly squirrels and parakeets have emptied the peanut feeder outside the dining room window, within 24 hours. While we ate lunch there was our podgy squirrel almost continually eating the peanuts: it would extract a nut and sit there nibbling away, rinse and repeat. In the time it took us to eat lunch this squirrel got through about an inch of peanuts!

Tuesday 10
16 green parakeets sitting in a tree.

Friday 13
Today I received my 250th Postcrossing card – which is rather sooner than I had initially expected. Here are cards 201-250 on our corkboard.

Saturday 14
And today my 250th Postcrossing card arrived at it’s destination in Switzerland. And another 3 cards in my letterbox, so we’re off to a flying start on series 251-300.

Monday 16
Tom came and brought us a couple of very nice fillet steaks – he knows somewhere he can get them at a sensible price (we don’t ask!). So we had steak (pan-fried, medium-rare) and chips for evening meal, and very good they were too.

Tuesday 17
What an awful dull, grey day, which seems to have fitted everyone’s mood. I started wrapping Christmas presents while N was at the hospital, and didn’t make a lot of progress. I’ll have to finish them on Thursday afternoon.

Thursday 19
Our friend Sue dropped by for a coffee this morning, having disgorged her husband at the hospital for a minor op. It was about the best time we could muster between us; fixing our Christmas pressie swap is always fraught. Sue originally suggested we go to them for food on 23rd or 24th, but N is being extra cautious about too much mixing at the moment, especially with the amount of flu there is around – and it’s looking as if this year’s flu jab is not very efficient.

Friday 20
Don’t you just love the NHS’s ability with communications! Late today N was told she has an appointment with the renal consultant on 7th January (not before time!), exactly at the time she is supposed to turn up for her dialysis session – although, for a wonder, it’s the same area of the same hospital! Moreover it is clearly expected that I go with her – which I want to anyway, as it’s time to harass the consultant. But of course this means I have to rearrange, for the third time, the meeting scheduled for that afternoon.

Sunday 22
Who knew that foxes like garlic bread? We had the crusts left over from the end of a loaf we’d made into garlic bread. So N put them out along with some chicken remains. Looking at the trail camera images, the chicken of course vanished first, but the foxes came back for the garlic bread. It’s all easy calories, so useful for them at this time of year.

Monday 23
Working in food retail is a pig of a job at this time of year; I know because I did it in the early days of UK supermarkets in late 1960s. So I wasn’t surprised when today’s grocery delivery turned up with only 3 crates out of 4 – luckily nothing missing that would have been a tragedy. The delivery guy said that the fourth crate would be delivered “this afternoon”. But at 19:30, no sign. I rang Customer Services who promised to give the Fulfilment Centre a prod. Sure enough, as soon as we sit down to eat the missing crate appears. Phew! I do have great sympathy for the guys at this time of year; both those working in retail and on the post, having done both.

Tuesday 24
As usual there’s just the two of us for Christmas, so we did what we traditionally do and bought a small bronze free-range turkey and a pork joint (leg, boned & rolled). I butchered the turkey: remove spine, legs and wings. That leaves us the crown for tomorrow; the rest is in the freezer for later. The pork came up 25% larger than we expected, so I removed a third which is now also in the freezer and the larger piece will be roast tonight. Result: we have a good amount of meat frozen for the future, and after roast for two days we’ll have lots for cold/pie/meat loaf/etc. over the next week. No doubt the cats will help too; in fact Rosie was wanting raw turkey (no chance).

Wednesday 25
A pretty normal Christmas Day here. Just the two of us; very quiet. Roast dinner in the evening with a bottle of champagne. A mountain of washing-up.

Monday 30
It’s that disconcerting time between Christmas and New Year when nothing is happening, little is working, you don’t know what day it is, or even what year it is. For some reason this year seems to have been more disjointed than usual. I wonder if that is because Christmas, and then New Year, are midweek so there’s no run of “normal” days from which to get one’s bearings. Of course N’s hospital trips don’t help, especially as the schedule has been juggled to avoid holiday days, so even that isn’t stable. Hopefully thinks will become more reliable next week when everything opens up and we’re no longer subject to Christmas TV.

Tuesday 31
So the old year ends, much as it started, grey and miserable, with little bits of rain. It’s scheduled to be a wet, warm and very windy start to the new year, but after tomorrow it gets much colder for at least a couple of weeks, although there is little sign of snow at least here in outer London. But we’ll keep warm, if only because we have a full wine rack! And, of course, we have a bottle of champagne in the fridge up for later: a glass just before midnight to say good riddance to the horrors of 2024, and a glass or two at/after midnight to welcome in 2025 with a wish that it is a much better year for everyone.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE

personal

Unblogged November

Being a record of some miscellaneous things and thoughts during the month.

From here on, I don’t guarantee to write something every day, mainly because life is dull and there isn’t always something interesting to record – and I doubt you all want to hear a continual tail of my woes and the weather. However the interesting, curious, strange, and just downright stupid will continue to be noted down. See also the entry for Sunday 17th.

So here are this month’s observations …

Friday 1
What an awful, dull, dismal day. Anyone would think it was November. Oh, wait a minute …

Saturday 2
A really good and positive GP patient group meeting this morning which left me with lots to do and much food for thought.

Sunday 3
We’re surrounded by the Paraffinians! Last night the locals were even returning fire. Why do people have fireworks which do little except sound like artillery fire? Actually why do people have fireworks at all? How can they afford it?

Monday 4
The gardener was here and he filled up the bird feeders. Within minutes there were 7 green parakeets having a party. Meanwhile I spotted a solitary redwing sitting in the ash tree a couple of gardens away.

Tuesday 5
What shall we do today? Oh, I know, let’s have our annual celebration of terrorism.

Wednesday 6
I’m not sure which is the worse example of shooting oneself in the foot: Brexit or another Trump US Presidency. Just never under estimate the power of stupid people in large numbers. Buckle up guys, it’s going to be a bumpy ride, and we may not see you on the other side. 😟😟😟

Thursday 7
I found an odd screw on the study floor. It must be the one I lost out of my ear the other day. It would explain a lot!

Friday 8
Overnight, someone took all my elastic bands out. Very depressed, achy, energy-less and sleepy all day, but somehow I managed to make myself cook dinner. Roll on April.

Saturday 9
I’m completely confused. I have no idea what day it is, and I never have these days. It’s not just that once retired all the days are alike, because it wasn’t always like this. Everything has been thrown asunder by N going to the hospital three times a week – and as one of the days is a Saturday it means that weekends almost don’t exist any more, which throws everything out. This, plus the grey winter weather, is one of the current causes of my depression. It’s enough to drive you insane!

Sunday 10
Oh dear God! It’s bloody Remembrance Day again. Can’t we do away with it? I blogged about my views back in 2015 and 2010 so I won’t bore you all at length again.

Monday 11
Spend some time this morning doing maintenance on the pond, which I’ve been putting off, partly due to the cold and wet, because cleaning the filter and pumps is a wet, dirty job. It was quite pleasant out; dry and not even too cold – although it didn’t help that, as always, I got wet and dirty. Soon sorted with a good scrub up and some clean togs.

Tuesday 12
I seemed to have spent at least half the day trying to sort out and order Christmas presents. I think I almost suceeded, at vast expense, as always.

Wednesday 13
I slept so late this morning that I was woken up by the Rosie Cat coming along to see if I was OK.

Thursday 14
Trying, in vain this morning, to finish the supermarket order but completely stymied because the supermarket website is all over the floor – some bits work; some don’t; and for some it depends on which route you take to what you want. Aaarrrrgggghhhhhh!

Friday 15
What is it that creates “one of those days” when everything conspires, gets in the way, or just destroys itself? There seems no rhyme nor reason, especially when it is happening to both of us at the same time.

Saturday 16
Talk about dereliction of duty. We have an intruder (entire male) cat; he’s a pest and has been around for a long time, although I’m not sure if he’s still the alpha male. Can our three not see it off? Not a chance. Boy and Rosie are each twice his weight and could make mincemeat of him; but none of them work together. No, we do nothing, even when we have him trapped in the kitchen between me one end and Boy Cat guarding the exit through the catdoor. Provost Sergeant would not be impressed.

Sunday 17
This is silly, and I fear getting slightly pointless. There’s so little happening, that there’s nothing much worth writing about. The depression doesn’t help, but it’s more than that. The world’s gone to the dogs in a wheelbarrow and trying to make any sense of anything is only going to make the depression worse. So I might take a break; perhaps write sporadically when there’s something worth writing about – or not if there isn’t. After all you don’t all want to hear of nothing but my misery!

Tuesday 19
Awoke this morning to really large chunks of snow falling from the sky. We weren’t expecting this, it wasn’t supposed to get south of Leicester! It didn’t last and had turned to rain within an hour; but it was quite pretty while it was falling. Snow this early in November is I think fairly unusual. But then everything’s fairly unusual at the moment.

Wednesday 20
Blimey it was cold last night; cold like we’re not used to these days. So this morning a very heavy frost; all the roofs were white. It’s the sort of frost that when I was at school we wouldn’t have been allowed to play rugby as the ground was dangerously hard.

Thursday 21
Yes, it’s Beaujolais Nouveau Day – the 3rd Thursday in November – when we get to taste the first fruits of this year’s vendage. I’ve not bought Beaujolais Nouveau for many years, after a few bad years, but as the Wine Society are stocking it this year (which they don’t normally) I figured it would be worth a try. So a box of 6 arrived this morning; and was sampled this evening. It’s clearly nouveau, but not a bad bit of “blackberry juice” for all that: slightly acid and slightly yeasty as one would expect, but with some flavour too. So with luck this year’s vintage may well be reasonable.

Saturday 23
A wild, wet and windy morning. And the first thing I see: a red kite drifting in the wind across from the west. I then went down the garden to check on the pond; there was an almighty scattering of parakeets and squirrels. And there are fallen leaves everywhere!

Monday 25
A relatively calm, although still breezy, and intermittently sunny day, after a very wild, wet and woolly weekend due to Storm Bert. We must have had a deluge last night as there was standing water down by the pond this morning – the cats weren’t impressed; Boy Cat was seen walking past on the railway sleeper edging of the border.

Wednesday 27
Today a number of amusements …

  • Our wild rose grows vigorously well across (but above head height) the garden next door to the north. Stuck in the middle of it there is a football!
  • Again we must have had a deluge last night because there is standing water the size of Lake Tanganyika along the path between the silver birch and the far end of the pond – that’s actually an area about 2×20 feet!
  • The rose-ringed parakeets are having a conference! Looking out mid-morning I counted 13 of them (there may have been more) around the bird feeders. They were being assisted by two woodpigeons, one feral pigeon, a magpie and a squirrel.
  • And as is traditional, the Boy Cat has the right idea: stay in bed.

    • white and tabby cat asleep

Friday 29
Up betimes this morning to see a glorious deep pink an gold sunrise which was impossible to photograph from here. This was shortly followed by seven green vultures sitting on a branch (well that’s what the parakeets looked like!).