Shopping

There is a young man with learning difficulties living next door. He has told me many times he would like to help me in the garden and didn't want any money for helping me. The trouble is that he has memory problems.
 I told him to bring his Diary round to me so that he could start to write things down, unfortunately he isn't good at writing and spelling. I am teaching him a little and sure enough he is slowly improving.
 A couple of weeks ago he managed to explain to me that he wished to have an Ariel socket fitted in his bedroom as all he had was an indoor Ariel and this was not good.
 I asked my mate if he could fit an Ariel in his bedroom and he told me there would be no problem but thought that an indoor Ariel would be sufficient. The owners next door where the young man lived agreed that the signal was poor so. . This was confirmed by the Assistant in the Electronic shop where I was going today. She concurred that indoor Ariel's were of little use in this area. Anyway I left it up to him to get things organised.
 Sunday I managed to get hold of him and he gave me the news that the Electrical place where he has an account no longer supplied Coax cable and accessories pertaining to fitting an Ariel.
 It was the next day when I remembered a place in Mablethorpe that supplied all sorts of things like that so I e-mailed him with the news. Back came the reply informing me what was required.
 Off I went this morning and walked into the shop. I had to wait about 5 minutes with a customer faffing about. Eventually it was my turn. I asked the female assistant if she had any Coax cable, the response was positive. I then asked if she had the other items I needed. Sure enough she had. In the meantime two more elderly men came into the shop. I generally will talk to anyone and as I had asked for 20 metres of Coax, I turned round to the first guy and mentioned to him that these metres meant nothing to us old ones. To be honest, I am certain I was the eldest be a few years. Well we all got into a very friendly conversation and the assistant was still measuring the cable I then told them that the Electronic shop was about the first shop to open in that area. I told them that the large Co-op was not there at all. It was just a barren waste land that used to park busses in the season but once a week in the summer an outdoor Market was there.
 The assistant then went to a Computerised till. I mentioned that my Mother would often complain that he hand ached hitting the old keys to the manual till we had. This was in the late 70s.
 We all seemed to be thoroughly at home reminiscing and the assistant was enthralled.
 I had to laugh as I was about to leave after settling my Account. One of the men suggested that we all meet there again next week. Still it was a nice change to have a pleasant conversation with a couple of strangers More soon.

Pal called

It was nice to see my best Pal call once again. He told me his Brother had sent a text message informing him that he had been in Hospital for a double hernia operation and had just got home.
 He told me that everything had gone perfect from going to see his G.P. to selecting a Private Hospital which was linked to the NHS so everything was free. He selected a Hospital in Nottingham and was admitted at 7.30am and discharged around tea time. He was well satisfied with the service he received. He lives in Chesterfield.
 I then told him about the problems my Sister had with her Daughter on the arrival of the child. He couldn't believe it but he knew I was telling the truth.
 I asked him how he had got on with his interview regarding Hardwick Hall. He told me it was great and talked for around 3 hours. So much so were the people there were impressed that they have invited him to go once more to talk. This time though about the surrounding areas and where the troops were posted and other things. So he is looking forward to going once again for a talk.
 Today has been one of the worst April days one could imagine, it started very dull with low cloud and cold. I wondered if it could get worse. It did. Around 10.00am. it started to rain, this is welcome as we have had no appreciable rain for some time. Later it ceased but turned very misty.
 I ordered a couple of saucepans from ASDA online. It is the first time I have done this. I must admit that they certainly kept me fully informed. I had at least 4 e-mails keeping me up to date how my order was progressing. This morning I even had a voice mail giving me the latest.
 My delivery date was originally Saturday between 7.00am. and 7.00pm. I went online around 1.30pm. and noticed I had another mail from them. This time it informed me that the delivery would be today. About 45 minutes later the door bell rang. It was Mark a man who I think has his own business delivering goods for several Companies. It was from ASDA. I must say I was very impressed and the goods look decent too. More soon.

Tragic Easter

This Easter got of to the worst possible start. Just out of Mablethorpe was a tragic accident. A young Man aged 16 was killed and also a 70 year old Woman  lost her life. I think 7 others were seriously hurt.
 Although the road is somewhat less than straight, I would never have thought that any serious accident would occur on that stretch.
 The weather was not that bad, visibility was good but it was breezy and cold. In fact the whole week end was not brilliant weather wise. As for me I stayed at home. I try not to go out at Holiday times. I don't collect my State pension on the day I normally do either.
 My tomato plant are beginning to grow and if I look hard I can see the first buds beginning to show. Until today, I have not seen any sign of my asparagus poking through but I have seen 3 spears just poking out of the ground.
 I have risked planting out most of my Geraniums(pelargoniums)in the garden as no frosts are supposedly forecast this week. As we will be heading towards the end of April, I hope that if we get any frosts it will not kill them. Time will tell. More soon.

Nothing much

Update on my Sister's Daughter. Mother and Son doing fine.
 As for me, here nothing much has happened lately. Yesterday morning and this morning if anyone was up early enough would have seen a sharp ground frost. It was sharp enough to kill a few Grapevine  side shoots. I did, however take my dwarf French beans into the greenhouse where everything in there was fine. It was only those grapevine shoots that touched the glass that were caught by the frost.
 I was out in the garden pottering about when the new Neighbour called  over and asked me if I knew anyone who would like a greenhouse frame. He told me his Wife no longer wanted it. I was not surprised as she told me last year she had nothing much out of her greenhouse. I did tell him my mate would be calling a little later and I would ask him. One bit of news he did give me was that the filling station at the other end of the village sold red diesel for 99p a litre. I was thankful as I needed some so I waited for my mate to arrive and asked him to get me a couple of litres of red diesel.
 I have never had this happen before but while I was waiting  for my mate to get back, this van pulled into the layby, not satisfied at just parking, decided to stop right outside my driveway blocking my entrance. I had to go out to him and ask him to move, my mate in the meantime had got back and was waiting to get in to my drive.
 I told him about the greenhouse minus any glass. As it happened the Neighbour was out in the front garden so we asked to see the item. He readily agreed and my mate gave it a cursory look  and told him that he would have it. This didn't surprise me as I expected him to take it. The Man then told my mate he would have all the items inside removed ready for him to dismantle the greenhouse.
 My mate was successful in getting my double socket to work once again so I am happy for that. It is not nice having the main light on each evening when it gets dark.
The weather, although being a little on the chilly side has been mainly dry with plenty of sunshine, let us hope that it stays like this for the Easter period. More soon.

Can you trust NHS?

I will let you who read this blog decide, I have my thoughts about it.
 My Sister told me recently that her Daughter(my Niece) was going through a tricky time with her pregnancy and then informed me that she did not have a lot of warning from going into labour to giving birth.
 I can't swear by this next piece but I am sure my Sister told me that if her Daughter ordered an ambulance to take her to Hospital and she did not give birth, she would then be charged and have to make her own way home. As I mentioned, I can not be sure about that.
 Now to put one in the picture My Sister lives in Grantham, her Daughter lives a few miles away in the next village. My Sister has been taking her to Boston on a regular basis to see that all is progressing O.K.  Grantham Maternity Ward was closed some time ago and now they have to go to Boston. I guess about 30 miles away, on Lincolnshire's winding roads with of course farm tractors being an added hazard.
Well my Niece went into labour, when she rang the Hospital she was informed that an Ambulance would NOT be available for between 2 and 4 hours.
 By now she was well into labour so my Sister rang 999. They were put in touch with the Emergency Centre. Talking my Sister and my Niece's Husband through the proceedure they delivered the baby themselves.
 Typical, as they had just finished the Ambulance arrived.
 The Ambulance then took my Niece to Pilgrim Hospital in Boston where she was checked and her Placenta was made to come.
 The birth took place about 11.15am. My Sister then informed me that it took the rest of the day to get the paperwork completed and she managed to get home at 10.30pm. She said it was a traumatic time. I bet it was.
 Typical of me I suppose. I mailed back to her suggesting that she take a Crash Course on Midwifery. He He.
Joking apart though I think it is a disgrace. I wonder if anyone else agrees with me. More soon.

Sowing runner beans

I went over to Grantham  the last week in March. I told my Brother-in Law that this year we would not sow the runner beans so early this year. He readily agreed with me and I suggested the middle of April would be plenty early enough.
 Last week end a mailed my Sister, they have just gone online so are finding it a bit heavy going. They too have Windows 8 which is not easy, too many apps.
 Well when she replied to me she told me her Husband had set his runner beans. I just couldn't believe it. The old saying was that Good Friday was the time to set the New Potato seeds. Mind you since he set the beans it has not been so good.  Yesterday though I did sow a few carrot seeds.
 My Cherry and Plum trees are well into blossom.

This photo was taken just over a week ago. Some blossom is now well over the top. My Pear tree is laden with blossom but the Apple trees are still in bud. I just hope we don't have any late frosts, nothing we can do about it.  

Tomorrow I have to go once again to have my B.P checked, to be honest I expect it still to be high, still nothing we can do about that so I must not worry at all. I will see what tomorrow brings More soon.                          

What weather

These last few days have been awful. dull foggy and those dreaded easterly winds so  it is cold too.
 Yesterday I had a new split Consumer board. As I have had the old one since I have been here I could not grumble. It had to be done as I was having my inverter moved from the loft into a cupboard next to where the meter is fitted.
 They arrived around 9.00am and after showing them all I decided to have a bonfire burning what rubbish I had. I was pleased as it was bitter cold out so the heat was most welcome.
 About an hour and a half later I went back inside. I was told that the inverter had just been re-sited and they were waiting to see if all was well. It takes around 5 to 10 minutes before it starts to generate electricity once the power has been turned off.
 As soon as it was found to be working properly it was time to turn off the electric, remove the old consumer unit and start to prepare to fit the new unit which is a little larger than the old one. Working in a confined space was not easy, I did go out a few times just to make sure that the bonfire was burning well. In fact by the time they had left, all that remained were a few ashes which can be spread on the garden.
 The men worked non stop and were very pleasant indeed. There was very little mess and they told me they would hoover up when they had done. I told them that they would do no such thing and I would hoover up when they left.
 I had planned that day that my main meal was going to be smoked haddock so I had no cause to have my saucepans on the cooker.
 One of the guys working only wanted a glass of water, well to be honest I think he had 3. The other guy, the boss made himself a cup of tea, then he had water.
 The job went well but he did inform me that sometimes there would be a fault because theses new Consumer Units were more sensitive and would trip the fuse at the drop of a hat.
 Well everything went well but when we came to check everything, I was in the T.V. room checking my standard lamp and I told him that I thought I saw a flash. He immediately came and looked at the wiring and told me that this was the problem. I thought that was that. He checked everything else and told me he was satisfied and if any fuse blew it would be because the appliance I was using was faulty and not the Consumer unit.
 They left soon after 2.00pm. I immediately cooked my smoked haddock. To be honest I was absolutely worn out and all I had done was watch.
 I had a little sleep and later I thought that the fault might be a double socket. I thought I would turn on my oil filled radiator. Sure enough everything went off. I can't see too good, that is being kind as I really have very poor eyesight. I went and looked at the unit. switched everything to the way I thought it should be and sure enough we once again had power.
 Incidentally I have just had my medication delivered, I thought that they had forgotten me, anyway that is a relief.
 I will now go and check all of my medication. More soon.