A few notes on things this month I didn’t otherwise write about.
Wednesday 1
Spotted at least four April Fool news items today.
Thursday 2
So we’re due a wine delivery. You tell them not to deliver before 14:00. So what do they do, deliver around 12:30 when we’re both out and leave it with an elderly neighbour. It’s called customer service! Gah!
Saturday 4
Banks! Well actually Building Societies in this case. Yes, you can open an online joint account, but you have to get the second person to complete a printed form and post it to us. Two different variants of this today. So no guys, either it is online or it isn’t. The third Building Society: yes, it is all online and we will send you the final setup details, if possible by email. Guess who gets the business!
Sunday 5
Oh happy Easter day, spent beating our brains out over draft wills and the like documents which should be going back to the solicitor ASAP.
Tuesday 7
What a gorgeous afternoon to be sitting outside the hospital (waiting for my taxi).
Thursday 9
And suddenly the garden is ablaze with bright pink blossom on our columnar crab apple. I must photograph it! (It’s too dark now.)
Later …
And this afternoon I looked out at 16 green parakeets sitting neatly arranged in a row on two branches of the oak tree, one above the other. Of course by the time I’d counted them and could get a camera they’d all shuffled untidily about.
Saturday 11
So Artemis II is back on Earth. Now can we go back to something that passes for normality and forget about wasting obscene amounts of money on shooting people and things into space for nothing much more than willy-waving. Think of the waste of money and resources; the environmental damage; how much good that money could do. And no, I don’t just mean America, but the whole world.
Monday 13
Another glorious Spring day, except for a quick light shower at lunchtime. The garden is full of blossom and birds.
Tuesday 14
Why are hospitals so exhausting? This is why … Today I had a 14:15 appointment about my back. I left home about 13:20 and found where I needed to be by 13:50. I was seen at 14:30 (so late) and to be fair then had 45 minutes with the clinician. Having phoned for a cab before 15:30, I got home at 16:20, with not a lot to show for it. Oh and the hospital was boiling hot; but people were still going around in heavy woollen coats and puffer jackets. At one point a fit-looking coloured woman sat down beside me; after 5 minutes she says “It’s really hot in here” and removed her puffer jacket revealing a thick sweater over … well who knows! No wonder she was hot – I was wearing just t-shirt and jeans and was too hot!
Thursday 16
Why, for no obvious reason, does one sometimes have a truly bad night and feel wrecked the next day?
Friday 17
Got my Spring Covid jab today. The pharmacy I go to is a couple of miles away, but I go there because they are just so efficient. Left home at 13:45, back home by 14:25 – and at the pharmacy for 10 minutes! OK they weren’t busy – two in front of me and only one lady doing injections – but they’re set up for this and have I think five stations for injections. It is a well oiled, very efficient system. If only everywhere was as efficient!
Saturday 18
Awake just before six this morning. Looking out of the window at the trees, the air was absolutely still; not a leaf moving. Very very unusual. There was a little breeze by mid-morning, but then it was almost dead calm again by teatime.
Wednesday 22
So relaxed today that my blood pressure was getting low.
Thursday 23
So what happened to St George’s Day? Scarcely a mention of it online and in the media. Yet St Patrick’s Day (especially) is always wall-to-wall coverage. And that’s just in London!
Friday 24
Sitting in the sun outside the hospital this afternoon, there’s a jumbo jet flying over out of Heathrow. And up there too a bird against the clear blue sky; looking as if about to collide with the plane. It looked tiny and was drifting in the breeze, but clearly well below the plane. No it isn’t a red kite, that’s one of the local peregrines drifting slowly around looking for some hapless pigeon for tea.
Other than that, very much a reprise of Tuesday, ten days ago.
Saturday 25
Now the daffodils have finished, we’ve recently been getting some really gorgeous tulips from the supermarket. OK, they aren’t dirt cheap (unlike the daffs; how can they do a bunch for £1?) but they’ve been lasting well, and been really pretty and joyful.
Sunday 26
Today, the first rose of summer. As we would expect on the Lady Hillingdon.
Sorry not a brilliant photo as it was taken looking into the light.
Monday 27
Spent the morning cat-wangling, in order to take them to the vet for their annual check-up and jabs. We’ve changed vet to a practice in the same group but which is closer to us, because the senior vet at our old practice has retired. Saw a very nice young lady vet (appears to be at least half Chinese, likely Hong Kong) who had been recommended by the lady from whom we got the Rosie cat. We had some lovely conversation about the cats. All three felines were incredibly well behaved – they didn’t even swear at any of the dogs! – and got a clean bill of health. Tilly was said to be in wonderful condition for a 13-year-old cat, with no sign of dental problems at all and has put on a little weight since last year; Boy has a grazed ear, likely from scrapping with the cat next door; and as we knew Rosie could do with losing a bit of weight. Otherwise they did really well. Although my credit card hurt afterwards!
Wednesday 29
Now that’s what I call service. I spent the morning at the dentist, when I had expected most of the day! He needed to replace one of my crowns. I arrive for a 09:45 appointment about 09:15 and I’m seen within 10 minutes. Old crown removed and tidied up. He then waves a little scanner wand around my mouth, and uses the scans to design the crown on his system (basically a CAD system) while I watch on the screen. As I’ve said before they now have a very clever (but noisy) machine which sculpts the crown from a ceramic blank to the design it is sent. That’ll take about an hour and a half, says dentist; we’ll ring you when we want you back here; so we may be done before lunch (I was expecting the sometime in the afternoon and having hours to kill). Noreen had come with me and gone off to the local charity shops. So about 10:00 I’m ringing her, and we meet at the café for a really excellent, and large, full English breakfast. We wander back to the dentist about 11:30. Again he sees me within about 10 minutes. Crown adjusted and glued on; I’ve paid (very ouch, again!) and we’re on our way home by 12:15. So I get a free afternoon! Definite result!
