Never Quite Enough Time

  My GP surgery want a blood pressure reading taking and sending in via some link in a text they sent me.     Blood pressure reading with the prospect of new IT to deal with.     What could possibly go wrong? The NHS also want me to do (another) bowel cancer test.    These seem to come around very frequently.    Having given thought to it, every two years.    It certainly feels more frequent.    Personally, if my body doesn’t want it I would rather not come into close contact with it though I expect medical professionals feel much the same way and then some with regard to other people’s. However, in my post 60 retirement preparation mode I need to consider my health and therefore …… I believe the phrase across the pond (where healthcare costs a fortune) is ‘suck it up buttercup’ so I best get on with it. As regards blood pressure; my grump, in (small) part, is that there is supposed to be a 5 year check up from the age of ...

  3 days away from the garden and I have lost, in the heat, all my rocket, mixed salad leaves, summer savoury, marjoram and radishes.     Much of the dill, parsley, chervil, coriander and sage is looking very sorry for itself.     In the case of the sage I can’t really blame the weather.     The pots are too small and they have needed repotting for a while now.     The rest are down to the heat and me not being around to water them.     These were all in pots outside. The greenhouse is not looking too bad but that is as far as I have got because we were very late home due to a closure on the M25.     I will check the garden proper tomorrow.       The pro is that the strawberries have come on line.    We had 2 at the weekend and now have a good couple of handfuls the birds have not got to first. Every year there are some things that fall by the way side and some things that work.    Our li...

  For this bank holiday weekend I had hopes of going to see The Devil Wears Prada 2.     That’s a fail then.     The timings in the local cinema (local here is 15 miles away) are not really fitting with other plans including sleep! The blinds have gone up.    That was a blue job.    There was a point where it was not going quite as smoothly as it might.    I identified this from additional power tools being called into action and mumbling about a couple of millimetres needing shaving off the top bar as S disappeared into the garage.    Obviously, I took the course of all sensible domestic supervisors in such a situation and decided this was the moment to go and visit my parents.   I arrived at my parents to discover their neighbour cutting their hedge.    This made me feel momentarily guilty but only momentarily.    We can only do so much, they would need to get someone in, and the neighbour h...

I have spent spare moments, some actually quite lengthy moments, for the best part of 10 days trying to find a hotel in London for 2 nights near a concert venue for which a friend has sorted us tickets.   Until we gave up the house in London in late 2022 hotels did not feature for such events and I suspect when this task was delegated to me, my friend had rather more idea of quite what a stressor this was going to be. Whilst I would have said I book hotels regularly closer examination suggests this is all very familiar.    I booked us a hotel in Whitby last year, Air BnBs in Paris and Bruges the year before but other than those I book (the same hotel) for when S & I need to stay over for work.    S did the bookings in France for the Cars and Cathedrals tour and that was very much with certain criteria in mind, primarily convenience.    We are creatures of habit,    so if we have an early flight out of Stansted it will be the Radisson...

The weather forecast is looking quite something for the coming bank holiday weekend.       Up to 31C in May with full sun.     Wednesday was 18C partly sunny.     I may melt.     I am totally the wrong colouring for the forthcoming sort of weather.     The veg garden, herb pots and greenhouse will need watering either early or late in the day, possibly both, or it will either evaporate and/or their leaves will fry/wilt from the sun on water droplets.   I am a little worried this may set the tone for summer.    I only have so many water butts and they are not going to last through a prolonged heatwave and the inevitable hose pipe ban.    I do, however, have a well and not for the first time I am wondering whether a pump down it might not be the daftest idea I have ever had.    I have resisted thus far as uncovered it absolutely terrifies me so I keep the very heavy cover firmly over it, a heavy plan...

  Well that was an exhausting week.     I complain regularly about 5am starts but seldom am I actually dealing with emails at 6.30am and 8pm on the same days and in succession. I’m not great on tech (despite what my parents seem to believe).    The basic nature of this blog may well be testament to that.    No doubt my more competent colleagues would rather I was better but for the sake of everyone’s sanity it is sometimes best that they assist.    This week, however, things were not really working for them either.    Upshot was I found myself logging in to a video platform for 2 days on my iPad whilst having various documents for reference on my desktop along side whilst providing (some might say playing at) tech support for another who was using my Mac to log onto the same video platform. By the end all appeared proficient but it was not a great start.    Note to self - my Mac does not have a touch screen! My voicemails ...