The Isle of Wight ferry and odd dress sense

Local news stations baffle the life out of me.  When I first moved north out of London, the local news here was relevant to the area.  However, ITV had a reshuffle some time ago of the local regions, so instead of being in the Central Midlands region I have been shifted to Central Meridian (all without moving an inch from where I was too).  Now then, bearing in mind I live in South Northamptonshire on the borders of Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, my “local” news now details happenings and goings-on in.................wait for it................Hampshire, Dorset, Essex, Sussex, Kent and the Isle of Wight.  Of course knowing about the delays on the Isle of Wight ferry and the occasional shipping forecast is very handy............if you live on the coast.  However, considering I am seven miles from Silverstone the ferry has very little (in fact none whatsoever) bearing on Northamptonshire life.  ITV insist that the transmitter is giving the correct information for this area.........exactly who at the company has a degree or even a basic knowledge of the layout of England?  It would appear nobody can claim that accolade.

The postal service continues to amaze me too.  Still no sign of the Christmas post which is holed up somewhere in the Northampton sorting office.  Perhaps it will arrive in time for Christmas 2011 although my hopes are not high.  However the new postman is proving to be an amusing sight with his trolley causing an obstacle course in the middle of the road.  It was a source of concern to me initially, but now I say good on him, as he is in fact causing the traffic to slow down around here which can’t be a bad thing.

This week has seen the acquisition of another car to replace my existing people carrier which has served its time and is well overdue to be let out on licence.  Much mirth and merriment at the car shop as the business manager is the double of John Virgo and I had to tell him so.  Well actually I did say John was a taller and narrower version, but facially they are the same.  On a subsequent visit I gave him one of my helpful hints...............with a striped shirt and tie with swirly patterns he resembled the test card so he had to know in order to readdress his wardrobe arrangements.

Thank you and goodnight.

Car plans, holiday plans and totally rubbish mail

Wednesday, 19 January 2011

So, here we are again, another week without Christmas post and another new postman who has added an extra dimension to the delivery service.  He knocked on the door yesterday to apologise for putting all my post through next doors letterbox, but explained it was his first day in the job. Great, so a postman with an inability read numbers, just what we need.  He has the bizarre habit of walking up the middle of the road with the post trolley then abandoning it so cars have to go around it..........Most odd.  Today however he was more successful and I have received two letters.............although I fully expect one of the neighbours to knock later with the rest of the post.  Still no Christmas backlog post though.  No reply either from the customer service (what a joke) department of the Royal Mail.  I imagine my letter has been lost on the way due to the totally crap service we are having.  I did sign off my letter wishing them Easter greetings as I said my hopes of them getting it before then were not high.

However, on a happier note the holiday plans are coming along nicely.  Looks like the train to Italy this year with possibly the sleeper train from Paris to Rome then plenty other city locations to explore for a couple of weeks.  This of course is in addtion to France for a week earlier in the year and a music festival in between.

New car is beckoning too. Well I say new, it will be new to me.  Going to view one this evening at the car supermarket place so hopefully will do the deal then.  Decided to replace the broken speaker covers in the existing jalopy (a hazard when it is a working car with little folk inside kicking at the doors) did the first one to see how it would hold and superglued my thumb.  It is currently shiny (not sticky) and I daresay in time it will wash away.

This is all.

So, here we are again, another week without Christmas post and another new postman who has added an extra dimension to the delivery service.  He knocked on the door yesterday to apologise for putting all my post through next doors letterbox, but explained it was his first day in the job. Great, so a postman with an inability read numbers, just what we need.  He has the bizarre habit of walking up the middle of the road with the post trolley then abandoning it so cars have to go around it..........Most odd.  Today however he was more successful and I have received two letters.............although I fully expect one of the neighbours to knock later with the rest of the post.  Still no Christmas backlog post though.  No reply either from the customer service (what a joke) department of the Royal Mail.  I imagine my letter has been lost on the way due to the totally crap service we are having.  I did sign off my letter wishing them Easter greetings as I said my hopes of them getting it before then were not high.

However, on a happier note the holiday plans are coming along nicely.  Looks like the train to Italy this year with possibly the sleeper train from Paris to Rome then plenty other city locations to explore for a couple of weeks.  This of course is in addtion to France for a week earlier in the year and a music festival in between.

New car is beckoning too. Well I say new, it will be new to me.  Going to view one this evening at the car supermarket place so hopefully will do the deal then.  Decided to replace the broken speaker covers in the existing jalopy (a hazard when it is a working car with little folk inside kicking at the doors) did the first one to see how it would hold and superglued my thumb.  It is currently shiny (not sticky) and I daresay in time it will wash away.

This is all.

Where is my missing post (and other irritations)

Another year dawns and the same old issues surface...............price rises everywhere from petrol to food, manky weather and broken teeth. Yes, despite the many visits for the famous root canal work involving a nice lie down every Monday morning, part of the tooth fell apart over the festive season.  Will have to make another booking to get it sorted plus get the other one started.  Oh good. Happy New Year.

With the snow a foot deep before Christmas, plans for the festive season were thrown into disarray, making for a rather quiet time.  I managed to complete several jigsaws though so the time was well spent. All the walking in wellies certainly helped the leg muscles to move and tone up a bit, although when the snow fell in over the top of the wellies I wasn’t too impressed.  Roll on the next drop of the white stuff at which point I will emigrate to warmer climes for six months of the year.

Just watching a children’s television programme where ‘Aunty Mabel’ has purchased some fake dog poo as a joke for children...........what an excellent example to set.

Explain this if you can..............I contacted the local sorting office yesterday to find out where the postal delivery was only to be told they didn’t have enough staff in work to do it. Errrrmm..................hello..............why is my area of town any less important than other areas?  Instead of the usual practice here of a morning postman then doing an afternoon one when they are short staffed, the decision was made to simply not bother.  Apparently they have a large backlog from before Christmas and will deliver today.  This explains why I am still waiting for nearly 20 cards which I know were sent to me.  I mentioned to the jobsworth on the telephone that the majority of my Christmas post had arrived already opened and that I was not happy about this.  He told me to speak to customer services (bearing in mind they are in Belfast) and quoted me a premium rate number.  At this point I lost my patience and reminded him that the post is sorted at his office, not the customer service office, and my gripe is with his team.  Needless to say he refused to help so I am stuck in limbo.  My hopes are not high in relation to receiving all the missing post today, nor receiving it in its original posted condition.  I posted three parcels together in December to the same address in China – to date, only two have arrived.  One street in town had no post delivered for five days before Christmas due to lack of staff.  Sell it off to Deutsche Post as soon as possible – at least the Germans know how to run an efficient system.  The increase in first class postage charges is so worth the money.................

Add the lack of rubbish collection into the mix and it has been a great start to the year by the professional bodies.  Four weeks without household waste being collected is shocking (no chance of ‘Christmas boxes’ for the binmen), although the local rodent population has been able to set up home in the many bin bags that people kindly thought to deposit on the street after week two.  Lucky old Ratty and his family, they were not homeless over Christmas.  No worries for them about lack of rooms at the inn. 

In times of stress caused by outside influences I find the best remedy is to sort out a holiday! Off to research the options now!  Arriverderci!

Getting Shaun up on top

Another week of oddities and amusement.

No dental visit for a change, root canal was finished last week, yay!  Another one yet to be started but it will have to wait until I get around to making another rack of bookings. 

I was at a loss for something to do on Monday morning this week (having got used to a nice lie down on a lay-back-and-float-up-and-down chair for an hour), so tackled the Christmas decorations.  The tree was bought and installed on Sunday, an elegant six footer, and just needed the lights on.  No point in putting baubles on as the littlies I look after always take them off or simply re-arrange them which is no good for my slight OCD tendencies.  Great, got the crate of lights out and made the mistake of adorning the needle covered wonder without plugging them in first to test.  Result?  Two sets of lights only partially working.  What to do?  Ah yes, parents out shopping in town, fired a call into them and they returned with a brand new set.  This worked well.................an abundance of white lights sparkling like the Trafalgar Square tree.  However, the coloured lights only work around the bottom of the tree.  Never mind, it is the thought that counts. 

Oh yes, the tree topper...............not for me a traditional fairy or star, oh no!  For several years now I have had a Shaun the Sheep, complete with a fir tree branch in his mouth, happily positioned atop the splendid offering.  Out he came, was dusted off and stuck on the top.  Just one problem, the top of this year’s tree is quite bendy so has been doubled over to stop Shaun falling off it like a daft teenager tomb stoning from a Cornish cliff.  This works well, however the position of the bent over branch underneath Shaun gives him a rather large appendage......................

Senior moment at my parents house.......new freeview plus box installed in time for Christmas, engineer left them with the system running and they watched some programmes.  Having spoken to my mother during the evening she said she couldn’t get a picture at all since tea time and although the green power light was on, the picture wasn’t.  Off I went, took one look and switched the television back on from standby...............praise be, a miracle!!

Snow forecast again for this week..............sledge ready, new gloves working well, hat, multiple coats and gilets at the ready, snow shovel primed and standing in hallway. Bizarrely the daffodils are poking through already despite the big chill.  Just proves they can get through in all weathers, unlike the local authority with their gritting trucks.

This is all.

White stuff in liquid, solid and slippery form

Ah right, winter wonderland has arrived.  Wonderland???? Dangerland more like.  Even with the light covering of snow we have had here the roads are treacherous and I have already had my first head on kerb hit of the season.  Weeks more of the white stuff to endure yet.  I remember when ‘the white stuff’ was a marketing initiative for milk suppliers along with  the Humphrey red and white drinking straw. Life was so much simpler then with either gold top or blue top milk.  Nowadays there are all sorts of options.........skimmed (yuk, just like coloured water), semi skimmed (acceptable in small doses), full fat (no way, all those floating bits of cream), even fuller fat (coronary in a glass), filtered, organic, unpasteurised, long life, milk from cows, goats, sheep, pandas - well not the pandas perhaps, but what happened to the simple instruction “grab me a pint of milk from the corner shop”?

Another horizontal start to the week at the dentists.............a nice lie down for an h0ur or so whilst another part of the current root canal was done.  Just drifting off into slumberland when I was aware of a burning cloves smell and opened my eyes to see smoke rising from my tooth.  Hey it is all part of the treatment and made a change from just tasting the clove poultice squirted into the gap.  Still not completed though but next week is looking good for an end result.

The outdoor supplies shops are making a killing in this cold weather.  Every time I find one I feel obliged to go and rifle through the bargain rail to add to the six or so layers I need to wear when outside.  Three pairs of gloves at once is not enough to keep my hands warm so another trip to the outdoor shop is looming to buy some ski gloves.  Add to this the various base layers, fleeces and a rather natty fleece hat (that flattens my hair out of all proportion) and you will understand why these shops are a godsend for a chilly and bloodless person like myself.  I do draw the line at a RAB coat priced £220 at the moment but will of course check it out at the end of the ski season to ascertain whether any reduction in price justifies a purchase.

Knitting update – the garment is nearly finished, just the collar to do then sew up the sides.  Might have to do another one if this looks ok.

This is all.

More bags, Mrs Barnaby and living in a freezer

Another day, another three charity bags for obscure organisations, never mind the bags are useful for bin contents and saves wasting a perfectly good black bag.

Here is a thought...................Midsomer Murders.  Who on earth would ever buy a house in the area (although I daresay the prices are pretty cheap) when every week there are three or four murders? Has anyone else ever noticed that Mrs Barnaby always knows the victims and their history?  Hmmmm, methinks she knows too much. Mark my words, when the series comes to an end she will be unmasked as the real murderer of all the folk over the years.

Have become very old fashioned this week and started to knit (yes, knit!) a long waistcoat thing.  Not sure if anyone actually wears hand knitted things these days but why ever not I say?  The original intention was to knit a pattern I did about 20 years ago. Perhaps I should have had this idea a bit earlier as the wool company no longer exists and I cannot get the same wool.  Now knitting a different item but it is progressing well – easy and quick which is what I wanted.  Watch this space to hear how is turns out.

Snowy days are on the way, rumour has it by the weekend we will be ankle deep in the stuff.  Am sort of prepared, sledge is out, warm clothing out, silly hat collection ready and waiting, freezer stocked with bits of interesting food................the only thing not ready will be the local authority with grit etc.  If the last snowfall is anything to go by then I will not see the road outside my house for two weeks.

The Christmas cards are written in readiness for posting on 1^st December as is the tradition.  Need to do a sample one and get it weighed for postage as Santa is unlikely to have the time to pick them up and deliver on the rest of his rounds come Christmas Eve.   The way the postage prices are rocketing it would almost be cheaper to deliver them myself and would prove a good excuse to have a holiday to the various far flung places my cards go to.  I refuse to resort to emailing my Christmas greetings as there is nothing better than getting cards through the door to take the sting away from brown envelopes arriving at the same time.  Also, the stamps this year feature Wallace and Grommit so they are at least fun (if a little expensive fun.....).  Religious stamps are available too as apparently religion has something to do with Christmas.

Time to retire to the upper floor where it is warmer.  Even at 25 degrees setting my house is freezing downstairs.  I am seriously starting to believe it is built over an ancient burial site.

This is all.