Another year ended

Buda palace, December 2022

Happy New Year to all my 30 or so readers. If you've been waiting for an invitation to let me know who you are, please do write me a comment! I'm intrigued.

Anyway, the old year ended with a few lovely events and a couple that weren't so much fun. I managed to achieve a blood donation, the 49th that is recorded with the service (although I'm pretty sure that a few in the early days have been missed). Then there was my initiation into the Invisalign system which is going to straighten my teeth with the aim of preventing them falling out and helping to reduce the chronic refractory periodontitis. However, one tooth is already scheduled for extraction in January, and both the orthodontist and periodontist are pessimistic about another one, and I'm starting to think they might be right. I have many, many appointments to come so if you are a fan of teeth you will find much to enjoy in the next 18 months.

Among the happier events, Pat the dog has come to stay again, this time for a whole week without respite because the training centre is closed. This is the longest time that I've been the primary carer for any living being. She is a sweet dog and getting on well with her training too, and she would very much like me to play with her now but I am writing this instead, so she has just settled herself on the floor and emitted a sigh of resignation.

I joined Lola II and Mr M for Christmas for a change, and went to see 'It's a Wonderful Life' with them on Christmas Eve, For several years they have gone for a lunchtime walk and picnic with a group of friends on Christmas Day, so that's what we did. The day included a Secret Santa event (with gifts costing no more than £3), the playing and singing of carols, supper, and pass the parcel. I'm not sure what my perfect Christmas would be, but despite this involving much more interaction with other people than I would wish it was actually pretty good. Thank you Lola II and Mr M.

Between Christmas and New Year, apart from the blood donation and Pat the dog, I had a visit from a chap to fix the induction hob after it was previously fixed. Poor UJ had dropped a heavy cast iron pot lid on it and cracked the glass - as I returned home she met me at the front door to tell me that something dreadful had happened, and I thought it was some awful calamity involving Russian missiles and family in Kyiv, so when it was just cracked glass it felt quite trivial in comparison. Anyway, the repair man came and replaced it with very little fuss, and if I had paid more attention the first time then a second visit wouldn't have been necessary. The problem was a mismatch between the markings on the glass and the touch activation, so that I had to touch the controls about 1 cm to the right of the marking. Fixing this took the second repair man about 5 minutes.

I had the option to go to the Buddhist Centre for New Year's Eve, but I couldn't quite face the uncertainty of taking Pat with me not knowing how she would behave, so I just watched a film and read a book and had a quiet time. I took advantage of Pat's presence by arranging walks with five different friends - one of them after Pat had gone because we were both too busy beforehand.

And Ilf came for another day of helping out with things that need drilling, painting and/or two people, including hanging pictures, fixing the downstairs toilet door and the verandah outside, and a bit of painting. I did all the necessary cleaning following Pat's visit, although all her bedding is still in the boot of the car ready to go to the launderette. All is shipshape again and looking good for 2023.

Pat the dog

Boosting and boredom

Witley Court, June 2021

Not much of note going on here at Lola Towers as the winter sets in, and we are approaching a time when we ought to stop socialising due to the ongoing pandemic, but instead we are about to embark on the annual round of super-socialising. Our leaders have nobody's interests in mind but their own and those of their rich friends, and consider the rules designed to keep us safe and the NHS tottering on applicable to anyone but themselves. It is contemptible.

With that off my chest, I can report that the vaccine booster programme seemed likely to need all the people it could muster, so thinking I would be needed I logged on to see what vaccination shifts might be available, and signed up to a few. On the first of these, quite a few people joined me who had not been vaccinating regularly for a few months, and there weren't many of us, so I was ready to be rushed off my feet. During the whole 8-hour shift only 150 people turned up to be vaccinated (at our busiest we can manage between 500 and 600) and I nearly died of boredom. 

The next shift was similarly well-staffed, and even fewer people came. I volunteered to go home early - in the remaining 6 hours there were only 24 people booked in. We think that the main problem is lack of advertising the availability of vaccination boosters, combined with the hospital's notorious parking problems. But we may be wrong. Other parts of the country are reporting 4-hour waiting times. In our little Portakabin nobody waited more than 30 seconds.

Back home Ilf had finished the majority of the decorating except for a couple of bits where the damp was evident, and Glf the builder came to have a look. He will come back in the spring for the pointing, and recommended a roofer who has not yet turned up. The LTRP really is a gift that keeps on giving. I was also quite uncertain about the colour I had chosen for the hall, which ought to be apricot but looks suspiciously pink in certain lighting conditions. I am getting used to it.

There has been a badminton match, which we won, and a trip to see mum and dad in which I battled with the phone and broadband company, and I think we won that bout as well. I dithered about whether it would be responsible to attend various social events, and decided to cancel the Buddhist film night but attend the Mr MXF company Christmas dinner, which was lovely. I even visited Lola II and Mr M on the way, and it's been a long time since I was there.

Christmas cards are written and sent and the few presents I require are wrapped and waiting downstairs. All that's needed now is for the Government to institute further measures to try and prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed. I wonder if they will?

A cold welcome home

Taraloka Retreat Centre, November 2021

It seems like a long time ago that I went off on retreat for a week into the wilds of the Shropshire-Powys border land. It was a peaceful, contemplative interlude, allowing all the responsibilities of ordinary life to be shelved for a while, where all I needed to do was keep an eye on my watch and turn up for things. And if I hadn't turned up and had missed a few things, that would have been fine too. It was wonderful.

Anyway, coming back to the real world I made a mental note to turn the heating down next time rather than turning it off altogether for a week. I spent all of Sunday out of the cold house, however, doing a busy vaccination shift during which it snowed quite heavily. It took about three days for the temperature in the house to rise to a comfortable level, but it did give me an excuse for lighting a real fire, the first this winter.

Ilf was booked in to start the next phase of LTRP decoration this week, in the porch and hall downstairs. He had somehow forgotten that there is always more complexity when it comes to my jobs and had only allowed three days, within which he managed only a little actual decorating. This is partly because I rely on him for other jobs around the house (he put up some shelves for me and cleaned some high windows this time) and also because of the damp I mentioned before, which delayed some of the painting. Dlf the Damp Man came round on Wednesday, but Ilf and I had already come to the conclusion that it's probably cracks in the mortar letting water penetrate, and I need pointing. Glf is coming round next week to have a look.

While he was here, Ilf mentioned one of his other customers who is having difficulty booking and attending a vaccination session because of being new to the area and not having a car. So I offered to help out, which is one of the delightful aspects of being able to organise my working life at my own convenience.

What else? I have been to an Orthodontist to explore the option of improving the state of my teeth using an alignment device - the invisible braces that have replaced the metal 'birdcage' that I wore in my teens. This only raised further questions, so it's back to the dentist to talk about what's next. My work for Mr MXF reached an impasse in trying to create an online shop using one approach, so I now have a different approach to explore, this time using strange creatures like Gitlab, Github, Gitpod and Cuttlebelle to learn how to build a website. And there has been badminton again - my back has recovered enough to play (and win) a match.

The canal at Taraloka

Filling my weeks

In the loft, June 2021

More LTRP activity this week. Olf's Mate and Olf's Mate's Mate turned up after several phone calls to chase them, to remedy the overflow situation for the two tanks in the loft - one for the water and the other for the central heating. I had acquired stains on two patches of ceiling which weren't growing, and our best guess is that these happened due to overflows rather than leaks. The evidence for this is that both overflow pipes had sections of uphill gradient, and contained sections with very dodgy joints. They took a morning to put in new pipes, and while they were at it they replaced the insulation around the water tank and gave me a new lid for the heating tank.

Ilf embarked on another phase of the LTRP, decorating the main bedroom and finishing a few bits in the shower room. He manages to cause problems whenever he comes - in past visits he has broken a toilet seat and a lampshade, but this time he managed to lose my visitor parking permit, which we think was stolen from his car. On the plus side, he does work hard and usually does a good job (except for wallpapering). I cancelled the parking permit and ordered a replacement, and the kind person on the end of the phone waived the £5 admin fee because the permit was only valid for six more weeks before I'd have to buy another.

I was planning to take advantage of having a second person in the house to order a self-assembly wardrobe, as I thought it might be helpful when it comes to any large or heavy parts. It was delivered in time but in the end I didn't get the opportunity to build it while Ilf was there. It took the whole weekend to build on my own, looks pretty good and fits the space I'd set aside for it. I only screwed one part on the wrong way round and luckily didn't need help with anything heavy. Now I have a full car-load of polystyrene and cardboard packaging to take to the tip, along with empty paint pots, a load of cassette tapes, a broken keyboard and all the usual stuff from the garden.

Since stopping my two days at the Diabetes Centre my weeks are still full because I've tried to ramp up the time I spend on Mr MXF's work, and I've done some more volunteering for Lola II. Mr MXF's work is intensely frustrating, and despite setting aside full days I can only manage about four hours before I want to throw the computer out of the window. I'm not sure I've made any progress in the last month, but Mr MXF assures me that a time will come when it all makes sense, so I'm hoping he's right.

We had a small Covid scare before Lola II was due to deliver her course, as she had a sniffle and a runny nose. That very day the BBC had reported that new Delta variant produced symptoms resembling a cold, so although she came up negative on a lateral flow test she went off to a proper test centre, just in case. That was negative too, but I still had to think hard about whether I even wanted to risk the possibility of a cold. I did go there in person in the end (and escaped without infection). Supporting the IT on the course was quite straightforward, although the microwave in the house had to be put out of action because turning it on it knocks out the internet. The internet went down anyway at exactly 4 p.m. and threw us out of the Zoom meeting - just after Lola II had thanked everyone and they were filling in their evaluation forms.

I stayed an extra day with Lola II and Mr M because we had planned a Day Out In London. You will be learning much, much more about this next time...