Visit

A visit to the dental surgeon today, in my NEW car. Yes it came last week, mind you I have not been anywhere in it yet. Well only to the dentist which is around 18 mile round trip.
It is an economical car doing around 65mpg. Just as well as this afternoon returning from the dentist the local garage was charging for diesel 1.41.9p per litre. I think petrol was 1.36.9.
Back to the dentist. While waiting to go in this woman was sitting and we started to talk about the weather and how cold it was today 4c. Her husband came out and I thought she had just been with him but no, she went in a few minutes later. Her husband was very talkative and was moaning about the cost of everything including dental fees. He then said to me that he supposed that I was on the state pension like him. I then told him I was on less than £100 a week. He was taken aback, he then told me that he received each month £1200. With that, his wife came out, he shook my hand and off they went. A couple of minutes later I was called in.
He welcomed me in and then I told him what was wrong. He then gave an inspection, told me that things were not quite right. He proceeded to adjust the upper set, saying that if he could do this, it would help but the lower set was not right and with my agreement he would send them back to the laboratory for readjusting as he knew what was needed. He told me that when the denture returned he would get the receptionist to contact me if that was acceptable. I said that was fine and left.
I went then to my local surgery to make an appointment to have blood tests and BP check. I am certain that my BP is still very high as on Friday afternoon I had a blood vessel burst in my eye. This is always a warning to me. Such is life though. See what tomorrow brings.

Teeth?

Before I carry on with my teething problems, I say this. I will reply to friends who commented on my findings about outsourcing call centres.
Now to my teeth. As I mentioned I was summoned late on Monday afternoon to go to the dental surgery.
What a performance. I had the replacement dentures fitted. Now bear in mind that all I have different is an extra 2 fitted teeth. Well when he fixed them in my mouth it was just as though there was no room left for anything. I arrived home and after the anaesthetic wore off I took a couple of paracetamols and felt O.K.
The next day, I tried to eat my breakfast but struggled. My gums were being caught but I persevered for 2 more days. On Thursday morning I asked the receptionist to get me to see my dentist as soon as she could. By the way, I think he thought I might have trouble as he told me that if things were not right come and see him but it was important that I kept the dentures in. Unfortunately for me, the first appointment was for next Monday. I immediately took the lower dentures out and fitted my old ones in making it bearable. I put the new ones in for a while today but still found them unsuitable. No doubt something will be sorted.
Now I have managed to get my new car. More of this another day but I had a surprise. Yesterday the phone rang, it was my local garage. Now bear this in mind. I have had my car serviced almost 2 years ago and last year I booked it in for it's first MOT. Well it was from the service side reminding me that my MOT was due at the end of February. After getting over the initial shock, I informed her that I had sold the car.
Finally for now, the last couple of days have been fantastic, warm and sunny. It isn't going to last though. Rain for most of tomorrow then night frosts for the coming week. More soon.

Far away places

The other day, I was given advance notice of the car I wished to purchase and given a date and registration number.
I therefore decided to contact my insurer with the relevant details. Having everything to hand I telephoned my insurer. I think I was talking to an alien. He certainly was not born in the U.K. but his English was good. I started with my policy number then name then the registration of the car I was to have, the model of the car, then the day the policy was to be cancelled from one and started with another.
My friend told me ages ago that when you get to these call centres, they have a template with a lot of questions and they work their way through each question as it is shown on their template. I now know this is 100% correct. He asked me every question I had already supplied the information to. It is so disappointing to be asked questions that I have already supplied the information to. For ages he could not find the make of the car. I kept repeating the make and model only to be asked if I could repeat to him. Well after about 25 minutes we were beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel when I casually asked him where he was talking from. INDIA was the reply. I immediately thought of an old song, it must be well over 50 years old and I can't for the life of me remember who sang it only that it was a woman. Someone like Joan Reagan. The song was. "Far away places", with strange sounding names, far away over the sea, those far away places that I'm dreaming about are calling, calling me.
The call lasted just over 30 minutes, the last thing he told me was that at midnight the cover for my present car would cease and at noon the following day my cover would start for the replacement car. I will wait and see if all is well. An update on progress soon.

More about last Friday

Yes it is about last Friday when my friend came to do odd jobs.
Well he didn't have a lot to do and while we were waiting for the lunch to cook incidentally we had chicken potatoes, leeks and carrots. Anyway he told me that he had been to see his G.P recently and told me that he was retiring, he added that he was only 60 and had offered to work part time only for the senior partners in the Practice where he works to tell him he must either work full time or not at all. He told my mate that he decided to retire completely, he wanted to do some hiking in Peru.
This story bought to mind the 2 times I played golf with a G.P. Both times I did not know they were Doctors at the time.
The first time was when I was in what was known as The Seniors Open. Most golf clubs have this competition. I was paired with 2 other guys. This man introduced himself as John a 69 year old man, I told him I was 66. It was not until we were on the 14th tee that the third person who we were playing with asked John if he was still working at the Doctors surgery. He told him that he worked sometimes as a locum and sometimes just twice a week. That was how I knew he was a Doctor.
The second time was when my playing partner was in the monthly competition, when you played when you wished. While on the 1st tee this woman came and asked me if I minded if we were joined by 2 others. I immediately said of course not. My partner didn't like playing with lady golfers. I did not mind too much, anyway she was well liked and I always enjoyed her company.
She introduced this man called Clive, she told me that it was his first competition and that he was a little nervous. I assured her that all would be O K and she told me that this was why she asked to play with us.
It was not until we were on the 10th tee that I heard Clive ask my playing partner, who had just lit a cigarette "How many of those do you smoke a day?" I heard my partner say to him that he was out playing golf and not in the surgery. When I got him alone I asked him what he had meant. He then said that he was Dr****** and the woman who was playing with us was his secretary, and he suspected a little more too. He mentioned that although he went to the same group of G.Ps. He was not his Doctor. I didn't mention it again.
It would be several months later when Clive was waiting to walk his dogs on the beach, he caught sight of me and said this. "You are lucky to be playing golf, I'm pissed off, thoroughly pissed off." Just a minute Clive I retorted, soon you will not see me on this golf course until after the season as I will be working 7 days a week during the summer. I then suggested that he do the same as I intended to do, that is retire at 60. He looked at me and just said that he could not quite afford it.
The last time I saw him was much later in the year, I guess October. He was on the wrong fairway and we were waiting for him to play. Well he was messing about so much that I went to him and said this. "Clive what the hell are you playing at". " I don't know what club to take" he said. I then remarked. " I hope you don't treat your patients this way". What he replied made me laugh. " No I treat them worse." When I calmed down a little I just said to him. "I think it's time you retired. I'm working on it" he said.
Several months later I was told that Dr**** had retired and left the area and gone to live down south. I wonder if it was my suggestion that made him retire. More soon.

Short story

This will be a short one as this afternoon I was summoned to the Dental Surgeons chair.
Just to update all on my medication. True to his words, the Doctor at the pharmacy did get me medication to me. To be honest, I do not expect any further problems.
as I remarked, last Friday my friend called to see me, he had a few jobs to do, he really is handy. Well he was fixing a socket so that my door bell would chime close to my sitting room. He had to get a feed from up in the loft. Well he had been there for about 10 minutes when he shouted down that there was a bird in the loft. I could not believe it, but sure enough there was a sparrow. I went down and got my butterfly net. What a waste of time that was, I am hopeless. Admitted there is not a lot of room up in my loft and there are plenty of cross members. Well after about 15 minutes I said to him that it would have to stay. Almost immediately he remarked that it flew into a corner. He asked me to turn off the light which I did. He looked to see if there was any light anywhere, but on he could see none. Well that was the last we saw of the bird, so I hope it found a way out. It beats me and also my friend where it did go.
I told you how handy he was, well I was mesmerised. I had a handle come off a saucepan and expected him to say he could mend it. He just told me that it was finished. Talk about surprise. I rung him up tonight, not being able to talk very easily and told him how surprised I was he then said to me that he did not want to mend it only for it to break again with me holding boiling water. More about his visit next time.

Unbelievable

It has happened again, remember in December all the trouble I had with my prescription. Well I do feel so sorry for Nic the delivery man.
He came today, rung the doorbell and with a smile on his face handed me my medications. He then informed me that they were all O.K. I had to disappoint him by telling him that I had not got all I had ordered with the small package. I needed a supermarket size bag not a small paper bag. I then opened the paper bag, the first item I saw was different to anything I had before. I selected it and told him that this was not what I had ordered. I saw his face go from a smile to being sad. He looked at the item, looked at the label on the item and noticed that although it said similar to what I wanted it was not the same. I went to fetch the medication that I had. he checked it confirmed what I had told him, then told me to check the rest of the drugs. All the others were correct. He made me laugh, he then said that those in the dispensary would say it's that old man complaining again as usual. I then pointed out that if they delivered what was on my prescription sheet I would never have to complain. He was apologetic and I told him it was not his fault. I suggested that he would soon refuse to visit me as I caused him trouble he then told me that he would always call on me. He told me that he would get things sorted and would call again tomorrow or Friday.
About 20 minutes later the phone rang. Don't ask me this guys name. He said this is Dr ?????? I asked him to repeat his name, it made no difference I had no idea, if anybody had offered a million pounds I still had no idea. Anyway he then told me that he was the Pharmacist which dispenses prescriptions. Well the conversation went something like this. "What is it you need" I told him I wanted my medication. he then said "I have sent you the medication" I replied that it was not what I had ordered. He then said"This is just the same as you require". By now I was getting a little annoyed. I told him to listen to what I had to say. I then proceeded to tell him that ages ago my consultant had prescribed that drug but it had not been a success and was not suitable because my body was allergic to it. He then asked me to tell him what I needed. I said to him "Hold on I'll go and fetch my last issue of this drug ans proceeded to read it off to him. All of a sudden he said to me"Ah! now I understand" I then told him that he had issued this drug for a few months. He didn't reply to that but all he said was."I must order this for you as I have none in stock. I will order this now and perhaps I will get them tomorrow, if I do then I will get them out to you." I told him that I had enough for a few days anyway. We then passed pleasantries and we left.
I wonder if anybody else has the sort of trouble I have. I will say this though. I do NOT have the run of the mill drugs.
By the way I had 3 phone calls today which is most unusual. one was about the car which I will tell more at a later date. More soon.

Something different

I have mentioned it before that I do at times watch Al Jazeera. They do have great short documentaries.
This is one I was watching today. It is about life in I think northern China.
I can only guess because they were of the Muslim faith. This doesn't detract at all from the story. According to Al Jazeera they had complete freedom in making this film.
It started with the parents of two daughters preparing the ground after the winter. It then showed the children going to school after the winter. It was not free however. The parents were discussing how they could afford to send their youngest daughter to school. I guess she was about 6. Her sister looked about 12. The man told his wife they could not afford to pay for the books that allowed them to go to school. The wife, as almost all mothers would, insisted that she MUST go to school as she must not stay where they were and must have a better life. This meant that she must have her education. The next clip showed the husband with the youngest daughter attend the men who take payments. The man told them he had no money but would pay as he did last year. The men in charge informed him that this year was different and the payment had to be paid up front. After a lot of pleading and haggling, they agreed that he could pay later. His daughter had a big smile on her face for the first time.
Returning home, the husband told his wife that he would have to go and find work as he has done in previous years. I must mention this they lived high in the hills with very few other people near them. well to cut a long story short, his wife agreed that he would go.
Off he started to walk along a dirt track and others joined him. There were about 10 when they were all together. One suggested that they would never get to where they wanted by walking and suggested that they get the 3 wheeler. another said that they would have to find money for petrol but the next thing you saw was this contraption. I don't know if anyone has seen a small sort of wagon. We have them at the seaside for gardeners. It was the size of an estate car but with small sides to it and no roof at all. It showed a longshot of the road, which looked good. The next shot showed the 3 wheeler stopped by the roadside with the rain lashing down and all were huddled in the back some complaining that they were getting soaked.
The next shot was of them being stopped at a check point. The road was again great. The policeman there was telling the driver that his superior would be there shortly.
This officer firstly informed the driver that the maximum people allowed to travel in a 3 wheeler was 3 and the rest would have to get out. e then told him he would go and look at the vehicle. He informed him that he had no disc, no number plates on it and it wasn't safe.
Anyway the next thing you heard was the officer telling him to go and he didn't want to see him again. Round the next bend the other men got on the contraption again and off it went to the valley. This was where the work was available. I found out that these men were going to gather wheat, as it was ready several weeks earlier in the valley than where they lived.
They arrived in the town where there was lots looking for work. As there was 10 of them it was not so easy to find work. Eventually work was offered at 20 Yuan an acre. I do not know what the value of a Yuan is so I am in the dark as to how much their work was worth. It turned out that they were there to cut wheat by a sickle a back breaking job. One of the men went missing for a few minutes and it turned out he was looking at a combine harvester, on returning he just told his colleagues that the combine harvester was a lot quicker that they were. They did manage to harvest 4.5 acres at 20Yuan an acre the man said that was 90 Yuan. Gave him 100 and asked if he had 10 change.
Back near his home he called on his eldest daughter. She was in a boarding school as she, like all the other children over infant class had to board out. His daughter said she was O K. However a couple of weeks later, she came home for the school holidays and told her parents she was worried she had failed her exams.
Her mother seemed concerned about that and asked her what she would do if she failed. She told her mother she would retake exams. You then saw her, with her parents fathering the wheat by sickle, it looked so hard. The commentator then said that they said that they would stay there and farm in the traditional way but almost certainly their children would travel to the city for a better life. It was said that almost half the farming community had already moved away from the hard life. Finally it then informed us that the daughter had in fact passed her exams .
It finished there, I just thought we are in the 21st century and that family were still in the middle ages. There was no electricity and no amenities at all. We have a lot to be thankful for.
Hope I have not bored anyone but I found it enlightening. More soon
P.S. A couple of days mice free.

Light at end of tunnel

First signs of spring my snowdrops in bud, within the next week will be in full flower.




These are photos of my hazel nut trees with the male catkins. However with the photo above if you can zoom in you will see some little fed flowers. Very tiny but they are the female flowers which of course produce nuts. Not that I get any though. I think I took photos last year of the spent nut cases. I wouldn't mind if I had some myself but the squirrels eat them before they are ready. Such is the joys of living in the country.




The nut tree has never been pruned, has loads of nuts on and is always a nice sight in the late winter months.

This is the first sign that winters grip is beginning to loosen. We will get more cold weather this winter but it will not last as long. In the picture you see winter flowering Jasmin and in the foreground the first daffodils in bud. They are the first as they are sheltered and are south facing. Still it makes me think about spring and getting out in the garden, but not yet though.

First update on the mice. I caught a mouse in the polytunnel the other day I hope that this is it.

Nothing more to say this time. More soon.

Gales

Yesterday I was preoccupied with mice catching that I did not notice the damage done by the severe gales we had. It seemed to gradually get worse as the day wore on, eventually easing off just as it got dark.
Anyway I went into the fruit cage and noticed some damage, not too bad and managed to repair the damage done. I then went to check to see if I had anymore mice. No, so I have taken the trap out of the greenhouse and put it in the polytunnel.
By the way, it was frosty early on but later turned out to be a lovely day. I went to get my pension this morning and the roads seemed O K. Why I mentioned this was that I had to go to the dentist this afternoon and as I went I noticed a car in the ditch. It looked almost brand new. I just thought that perhaps the wind had caught it yesterday but I did not notice it this morning when going to get pension.
I went to the dentist and told the receptionist that I had better pay some money as I will have a large bill when my treatment is complete. I paid here £150 cash. I then noticed that there was a notice stating that in future cheques will not be accepted and it is either payment by credit card debit card or cash. Perhaps they are anticipating the phasing out of cheques. I was not there long as it was just another fitting. I go in about 2 weeks for the extraction and fitting of the new dentures.
When I left the dental surgery I went to have my hair cut. It had gone up by 5%. Still cheap though, I then called and bought some milk then made my way back home.
When I was nearing home, the place where the car I saw in the ditch. A recovery vehicle and a hospital ambulance was in attendance. I feel a little sad as I do not know if the car had just gone into the ditch when I went by, or whether it had been there for ages. One fact is that it would have been well over the hour earlier that I had noticed the car in the ditch, so there would be many vehicles that would pass the car in the ditch.
I will keep my eyes open for any news, if I hear any then I will pass it on. More soon.

Three blind mice?

The other day I went into the polytunnel and noticed that my broad beans had been nipped. Only the ones though that had just poked through. I guessed that I had mice in. I then noticed that a small hole had been made so that I was sure that I had visitors.
I decided to check my greenhouse and sure enough there was signs of mice. I was particularly saddened by the sight of a seed potato having been started to be eaten after the mouse had moved the soil away.
I was determined, or so I thought, to get rid of these nuisances as soon as possible so I started to hunt for my mouse traps. I looked all Friday, I don't know if anyone else is like me, but if I can't find anything I am looking for I can't settle. Well late on Friday I found one, that was something so I went and bought some chocolate to bait the trap. The old idea of putting cheese on is a myth. They wont touch it. Anyway I set the trap in my greenhouse and the first day, noticed that the bait had gone but no mouse. However on Sunday I managed to catch 2. Mind you I was still not satisfied as I could not find the second mouse trap. Late on Sunday, I did find the trap, unfortunately it was broken. I was amazed because I do not know how it got damaged.
Today another success. The third mouse. Hence the title three blind mice, mind you not only blind but now in my recycle bin. I will of course keep setting the trap for a few days in the greenhouse then if nothing happens after a couple of days, then it is going to be put in the polytunnel. I am sure that I have several in there too. I guess that with the extremely cold winter we have had that it could only be expected. If only they would leave my produce alone, I would not bother them. Wishful thinking on my part I presume. More soon.

Memories

I honestly don't know how this was bought to mind but this happened and to be honest I am a little ashamed to admit this.
This happened at least 50 years ago. While working on the footplate on B.R. there was the odd occasion during the slack winter period we would be requested to work in Peterborough. The system worked thus. We would sign on then walk from the loco to the station, less than 3 minutes walk, catch a train to Peterborough, generally walk to New England loco which was a 30 minute walk, we would then be assigned a driver to work with but only on local workings. There would be generally 4 of us that would go.
Well this night I was given a Driver Reynolds and we went out to do some local shunting. He was a pleasant man. When we finished the shift, we had to fill in a time sheet detailing what we had been doing and with whom you were with. It was this that made me feel ashamed. I asked him how he spelt his name. Was it Renn. No he told me politely it was Reynolds. I was full of apology as I realised immediately I had made a huge error. When we finished the shift, thank goodness there was generally transport to take you back to the station so that you could catch a train to Grantham then sign off. Of course travel was free.
I was originally rostered with a man called Roy, who died several years ago. We both started work on the same day and kept in touch with each other when working. I told Roy the story that I had asked the driver how to spell his name laughing and telling him I was ashamed. He bust out laughing. He told me he had a couple of nights later had this driver and had done exactly the same thing. With that I also laughed again saying to him that he would think that all in Grantham were thick. Mind you I have never forgotten how to spell that name again.
Now to something different. With football transfers all the rage I wonder if anyone is like me. Surely no person can be worth £50m. This is just the start. Fernando Torres, who cannot be blamed, is guaranteed £165,000 a week for the next 4 years. I have worked it out and he will get, I will not say earn, more in just over a week than I earned in all my years prior to retirement. £8.5m a year is beyond most men's comprehension. Am I jealous? No it seems to me that the gap between rich and poor is getting ever wider. So endeth this comment. More soon.

Surprised

As I was watching on Al Jazeera TV I noticed that beside the troubles in Egypt there was also trouble in the Yemen. Both countries, as most in the middle east are run by dictators. I thought how lucky we are here with no restrictions really at all.
To my surprise, I checked my mail, and had a mail from the rep. who is supplying the car I ordered. As I had written to him yesterday I was not really too surprised. It had an attachment to it. I can not tell you all but I think I can tell you some. This is how it started.

As the manufacturers operate a two tier pricing system it has been brought to our attention that certain manufacturers are actively attempting to restrict the supply of competitively discounted newly launched vehicles reaching the retail customer in an attempt to divert customers into paying unnecessary higher showroom prices for their vehicles than they need to.

As we only supply vehicles to private individuals and do not supply any person connected to the motor trade, to secure the delivery of your vehicle and any other customer's vehicles our supplier has deemed it necessary to require that all of our customers comply with the agreement as laid out below.
I am not allowed to go into detail but I think I can say this.I am not allowed to talk about the price and can not sell the said new car for at least 6 months from the purchase date.
I will not go into any other detail but to say, I have signed a disclaimer so I must abide by these rules.
I wonder if any other guy has had anything like this happen to them. I certainly have never had anything like that before. I guess that is why I have had to wait for the car. Incidentally he told me that it should be available within the next 12 days or so. I presume that is when he gets the disclaimer. I posted it today.
Oh well, we learn something new every day. More soon.

Different Worlds

Reading from my Americans mail to me reminded me of the time I was in the early years of my business at the Kiosk.
It had no electricity and only had LPG as the only fuel. I had cause to call out the LPG engineer. He worked for Calor so it was an expensive call out.
Anyway when the guy called, he was not the most agreeable man and seemed to be rather unfriendly. I did however offer him a cup of tea which seemed to make him more agreeable. He told me that there was a call out charge which I understood. I paid the bill there and then and he told me that he would be calling in about a weeks time to complete the work when another part was in stock, he told me with a sort of grin that there would be no call out charge next time.
Within a week he arrived, on entering I asked him if he wished to have a cuppa first or after the job was completed. He surprised me by asking if he could have one straight away and he would work as well as drinking the tea. He was a lot nicer this time and told me that he would have to come again as there was something not quite right but he suggested he gave me his telephone number so that if anything went wrong he could call him therefore saving a call out charge. I agreed and told him that if he was ever passing he was welcome to visit us and have a cuppa. Well about 2 weeks later he called to see us. He first said that he was moving house soon but would let us know his new phone number. He also told me he was soon going on holiday. I naturally asked him where he was going. To the States he replied. Mind you he said I am not paying, it is Father in law. Oh I joked. I suppose you married into money. He then frankly admitted that he did. He told me that his Father in law knew friends in USA and they stayed at one of his homes. A four bed roomed house. He told me that he had only his wife and daughter approaching 13 so there was plenty of room.
He then proceeded to tell me all about America. He told me that for any young person willing to work, America was the place to be. He told me that as a qualified LPG engineer he would have no trouble in finding plenty of work, his only problem he said was the family. They said no way. He then told me that I should go there. There was plenty of work, even washing up jobs were advertised at $5 an hour with no takers. He told me that petrol was $1 a gallon and coke was also $1 a can. He told me that the snag was that you had to have, I think it was a Green Card to work permanently there but he also said that he met plenty that worked for 10 months then had to leave the country for 2 months only to go through it all again.
He said it was a different world to here. Food he told me was presented in huge portions, no wonder a lot of the younger generation were obese. He told me also that when you went into a restaurant with every meal coffee was served and it was free. When you had finished your cup it was automatically replaced by another full cup.
Driving was an obsession with them. Nearly all of the cars were huge gas guzzlers and he told me that nobody thought anything of travelling 60 miles for a morning cup of coffee.
My American friend told me that he once travelled 100 miles for a coffee.
Finally he did say that the Americans were the most friendly people that you could ever wish to meet.
Now to put this in perception this was in 1993 or 1994 at the latest. With petrol at just over $3 a gallon, perhaps even the Americans would think twice about travelling 60 miles for a morning cup of coffee. How times have changed. More soon.