Mostly difficult stuff going on

Hlf, September 2024

Recently I visited mum and realised that I'd left one job so long that her email client (Outlook 2007) was going to stop working in less than a week - Microsoft no longer consider it secure because it's so old, and will prevent it from accessing her emails. So I swapped it for an alternative client, and the best part was that I also managed to upload her stored history of emails and her address book, which took a very long time but made me very happy to have achieved it. Then on the next visit I discovered that the new client was also blocked, and I managed to wrestle it to the ground and unblock it, but at the cost of losing all the emails that had arrived within a period of five days. Initially I thought I'd lost the whole Inbox and all the Sent items too, so losing just five days felt like a win.

I managed to go to the RSC to see The Merry Wives of Windsor. Whenever I go there, which is very seldom, I always vow I should go more. It's top quality theatre on my doorstep, so I don't know why I don't. And the roofers and my new glasses arrived on consecutive days in an expensive week. While the roofers were working I did a session of pruning in the garden - only three bags full, much more is needed.

Another thing that's been going on is renewing my car insurance. Over the years I have chosen to use a local broker for many of my policies - car, household, landlord insurance - but it has been well publicised that prices for insurance are rising. Generally what happens is that the broker gives me a quote, I go online and find the same cover at a lower price, and up to now they have managed to reduce their quote to something more acceptable. This time the renewal quote was £200 more than last year and when I went online the lowest quote was £170 less than this. I don't always choose the lowest quote, but the most common amount was still about £150 less than the broker, and they couldn't or wouldn't go anywhere near matching it. I don't quite see how they are going to survive on the High Street.

I've also been on retreat, which went very well - it was aimed at people who don't necessarily know anything about meditation or Buddhism, and so a) was much shorter than the heavy-duty retreats I've been attending and b) was at an introductory level in terms of teaching. But I chose it because it focussed on a topic that I've always found difficult, so I thought that starting from the beginning again might be useful. It was, but not in the way I expected. It was lovely to see people finding something they'd been looking for without knowing it, and to remember what I was like when I went on my first retreat at this centre when I didn't know who I was or what I wanted either. I've come a long way and all for the better.

I was going to carry on northwards for a weekend in York so arranged to drop in on H+B on the way. The York weekend had to be cancelled, but I went to H+B anyway, and talked about dismal things like the Office of the Public Guardian, Enduring Powers of Attorney, Executorship and Probate. But we wandered round the garden too, and admired the brickwork and freshly painted frontage of the house, and marvelled at the flat upstairs which is up for let at an eye-watering monthly sum. H is well, looks good, but is feeling his age (aren't we all). We agreed that the main thing for the avoidance of excruciating administrative entanglement is for H to remain alive for the time being, which thankfully he seems happy to do.

It's starting to feel like spring

Mac, April 2023

Mac the dog came to stay, just for one night. I found out afterwards that this was his first time away from his regular hosts, which may explain some of his behaviour, and I was warned in advance of a couple of things - his dislike of getting into cars, and his chewing on blankets. Sure enough it took four of us twenty minutes to tempt him into my car to get him home. When it was time to go back to the Centre I didn't bother trying to get him into the car but walked him back instead - luckily it isn't very far. He seemed very stressed and anxious most of the time, and wouldn't even come in the front door of the house without a good deal of persuasion. I was thankful for his sake as well as mine that the stay was only one night.

I am pleased to say that mum is much better now and we have started a new project to try and get a wheelchair ramp installed so dad stands a chance of getting in and out of the house. Not that he wants to... I have been on two retreats, my study group and our weekly meetings continue, as does badminton and the fortnightly pub quiz. 

UJ and I had our second welfare visit to check that everything is still OK - it's been six months since she arrived, although she's been back home in Kyiv for a significant part of that. Now that she has a job (and it took two of us to construct the office chair that her employer provided) she will probably be in the UK more of the time, since there are in-person meetings she has to attend in London. During my first retreat over the Easter Bank Holiday UJ went to see a friend in Amsterdam, and when I came back from the second weekend retreat she reported that she had met up with other Ukrainians locally, celebrated Easter with traditional cake and other foods, and been to a gig. So I'm happy that she doesn't rely on me for all her social activity, which previously was a slight concern.

And I fixed my printer (sort of)! It was reporting a paper jam when there wasn't one, and the Internet showed me what the problem was likely to be, and now it is (intermittently) fixed. I don't print very much, but it is very annoying not to be able to. I don't know how long my fix will last, but the three pages that I wanted are done.