Spring is here!

What a beautiful Spring day it has been here. About time we had a bit of sunshine and warmth and walking into town this morning was very pleasant. So after my counselling, I walked home and sat in the garden for a while, before popping down to Sainsbury's to do a bit of shopping. Then I sat in the garden again.....
Finally I managed to persuade myself to get off the old beam end and re-pot my tiny lettuce seedlings, which didn't take too long, so I was then able to sit in the garden for a while.
You see the pattern here? A regular routine like this and I shall soon be sporting a wonderful tan for the summer. Now, where did I put my shorts last autumn?

NHS infection prevention

Three times a week, I walk into town to do my voluntary counselling and pass the local hospital. I have become used to seeing nurses, still in their uniforms, standing on the pavement beside the busy road smoking. I am often passing around the middle of the day when it's likely to be their break-time and, as the policy in Wales now is that no smoking is allowed on work premises (and in the case of this hospital, that is taken to include the grounds), for those who are smokers, there is nowhere else to go.
My issue is really with the fact that hospital staff now seem to be allowed to go anywhere in their uniforms and seeing them standing beside a busy road, with all the traffic fumes, dust, dirt and general pollution, does not inspire me with confidence as to how well protected their patients are from infection when they go back to their wards.
I could go on at length about the five months of nursing I did back in 1966, when staff were never allowed out of the hospital grounds in uniform and were not even allowed off the ward in their aprons but at least in those days, there was no threat from MRSA etc.
But today, on my way to my course, I was astounded to pass a doctor, in theatre greens, stethoscope round his neck, walking along the same busy, polluted road outside the hospital.
I just hope I never need an operation in there!

Senior moment?

Off to Sainsbury's to do the shopping this morning. (Well, we have to eat, so I have to shop.)
After the main shop I went over to the kiosk to get my mobile topped up, buy some stamps and to get £50 cash as I was paying by card.
I had a brief conversation with the lady on the till about stamps as it happened, (No, don't ask; I know it's boring!) which was probably just as well because she remembered me instantly when I went back an hour later.
Why did I go back I hear you wondering aloud, but, patience... we're now getting to the exciting part!
Back home, I took all the shopping out of the car boot and then I took next door's cat out of the boot, as he had sneaked in while I wasn't looking, put all the shopping away and then looked in my purse for my receipts.
And that is when I suddenly thought, "Hells bells!!!"
The reason for this was the distinct absence of £50 in said purse. Nothing, nada, niente. So, back to Sainsbury's, taking corners on two wheels, of course (See, told you this was the exciting part.) and skidding to a halt in the carpark before racing (well, striding purposefully then) into Sainsbury's and back to my new friend on the till who apologised profusely before handing over the dough.
After that, I skipped happily back to my car and went off to B&Q to buy two more large sacks of compost which I manhandled all by myself.
The brain might be going but the muscles are still in good working order.

BT - Is there anyone there?

We pay our BT bill by direct debit but this month, it seems that the money was not in the account when BT wanted to get its mitts on it, so on Tuesday, when I picked up the phone to make a call, I couldn't. I was invited to 'press 1' if I was the account holder, but I wasn't so I couldn't - they wouldn't have wanted to talk to me.
When Keith came home in the evening, he got straight onto it, got through to the relevant department and, after a long wait, spoke to a nice man with an Indian accent, who told him that he couldn't take a payment from his credit card and was all for sending him to the post office. (?) However, after a further conversation, during which Keith informed him that he not only could but was definitely going to take a payment from his credit card, the deed was done and normal service promised within the next 24 hours. This conversation had taken half an hour.
Yesterday, the phone was still not working so he tried again and again was left hanging on for half an hour but this time, he was then cut off.
Today, still no phone, so I had a go. I went through all the menus, choosing every permutation of choices I could in a vain effort to get to speak to a human, but no joy. I went online to try to find a phone number to try but still with no success, so finally, I dug out the paperwork for the business connection, chose a number from that at random and dialled.
Success! This time I actually got to speak for a 'real person' and within 10 minutes, our phone was working again.
What a performance. Total time spent on the phone trying to sort it all out - one and a half hours!

Invisible already?

You know what I said about 'sliding gradually into invisibility' on my blog header? I must admit, I really didn't expect that invisibility to extend to Keith!
Today, I walked back from my counselling place, as usual. I crossed the road not far from our house and noticed a dark Range Rover approaching. As it got closer, I saw the man himself at the wheel.
"Ah, now I'll get a lift for the last few hundred yards," I thought happily, as I prepared for said Range Rover to pull up beside me.
But no, although there was no visible sign of a white stick propped up beside him, the driver of said vehicle drove on regardless, completely oblivious to my presence.
He wasn't, however, when I arrived home, hard on his heels.
"Sorry," he said, "I didn't see you."
Which was completely the wrong thing to say... He knows that now!

Shut your bin!

The old blood pressure has been somewhat raised this morning by this little gem on bin emptying which is in the news today. Our local council has long decreed that bins have to have their lids closed in order to be emptied. The binmen (sorry, refuse disposal operatives) also refuse to empty them if they are up to a centimetre away from where they think they should be placed outside one's house and they only empty the general rubbish bins fortnightly now instead of weekly. They also have this neat little trick of dumping the empty bin right in the middle of your drive, so that you can't drive in or out without having to move it first. We have green boxes for recyclable rubbish, but only certain types. You can put plastic bottles in there, but woe betide you if you sneak in any other plastic containers; the 'wrong kind of plastic' you see.
Already we are sorting the rubbish for them, dragging our bins out of the garden onto the pavement, with the threat of dire punishment if we do this on the wrong day, of course and having to harbour rubbish for two weeks instead of one, with the attendant hygiene issues. Now we are further limited by the amount of rubbish we can leave in the bin. So if the bin is overflowing, which can easily happen in the case of a large family, what are we supposed to do with the excess? If we were still in the days of rubbish bags having to be picked up and thrown onto the wagon, I would agree that the job was physically tiring and probably didn't do the back muscles much good, but now, all that is required is to line two bins up so that the wagon picks them up. I could do it with one hand tied behind my back; it's hardly dangerous. But it's a different matter for elderly and infirm people who have to struggle to pull a heavy bin down a path onto the pavement if they want it emptied. It obviously doesn't matter if they injure themselves. I am waiting with impatience to read of the first court action against a local council brought by a resident who has injured him/herself in the struggle to put the bin out.

This morning, not for the first time, I have had to drag my bin up the road to the wagon because some of the rubbish had been left in it, so they don't even check that they have been properly emptied. Today there was some polystyrene packaging which had been jammed down the side, so with my best, most charming smile (No, OK, I dispensed with that - I was annoyed!) I approached one of the men, dragging my bin behind me. It's quite a surreal experience round here, as our binmen are a bit like the traditional brass monkeys, but in their case, they are obviously recruited for their abilities to 'see nowt, hear nowt and say nowt.' What this means in practice is that I say, very politely,
"Excuse me, there is still some stuff in my bin."
Silence as he continues to load two other bins onto the wagon, apparently completely unaware of my presence. I hastily look down and check that I am fully dressed and have not suddenly become invisible. After a couple more minutes, he grabs the bin from me, without sparing me so much as a glance, loads the bin once more and, this time, empties it, before flinging it conptemptuously in my direction. I am overcome by a wild impulse to ask him which charm school he graduated from but if I do, assuming that he will actually register that I am speaking to him this time, he may refuse to empty my bin at all next time and I may be arrested and charged on the grounds of being intimidating towards a council employee.
Maybe next time, the solution would be not to be dressed if I have to chase the wagon with my bin. It would have to be a warmer day than today though!

Locksmiths unite!

Keith, in his capacity as locksmith and auto-locksmith, belongs to several organisations and forums but has now decided to create his own forum as he was a bit irritated by constraints appearing on some of the established ones. Hence, lots of computering and creating has been going on chez Jennyta over the last couple of evenings. If you would like to visit it, it is on my sidebar or you can just click here.
Of course, as it is brand new, there are, as yet, no members, so I was invited to register to try it out. So now, there are two members, Keith (Admin) and Bikerchick.
YES, Bikerchick!! So what's wrong with that???