When in doubt both feet out!

 That was what my driving instructor said to me many many years ago.... brake!! Now I apply that to all life situations.

So...yesterday after another night awake worrying, I spent the morning on the phone.

First to a gardener, a young woman who we had agreed to come and help us in the garden to do some weeding.  I tried to look her up on FB but she wasn't there, no web page either,  so no portfolio to look at.. Was she qualified, was she experienced, was she ok? Anyway she assured me she knew what she was doing.. and as Dh said, what's the worst she could do? If she digs up a plant, we'll buy another one.

Then the Drs,, I had an appointment on 18th July with a Dr who's name I didn't recognize.. so phoned to ask who was she, how long had she been at the surgery. It seems she's been there a year, but her name was not on the list on the surgery web site. She is a Registrar getting in some practice to be a GP.. I stated I wasn't happy and would rather have a regular Dr. At 81 with a chronic urinary condition I want someone, who actually knows about me. So now have an appointment today with a Dr I've spoken to on the phone.

Then the most difficult phone call. I'm not that happy with this electric chair..the seat is too hard, if I lift up my legs with the lift up bit, my carves are resting flat on it, so could I get a DVT? And the controls are on the right side where my duff arm is, so proving difficult, but evidently I could have had them on the left, if an engineer came out to see it. I listened quietly while she went through her sales talk, but I held fast to, I would like my money back £1608.15.Yes I can, minus £60 collection charge.. 

After all that I was exhausted, I'd only had 5 hours sleep, and broken at that so not a proper sleep.

We wait and see what happens with the chair, but a weight has been lifted off my mind.

Chrisxx

What will happen after Friday?

 I see all the regular TV Friday shows are being dropped on Friday for continuous coverage of the post election news. If the polls and surveys are correct it looks like the Labour party will have something like 400 MPs. 

Chatting to my son we both aired views as to what we think might happen with the labour party in power. One thing we both thought was Council Tax will rise, a tax that everyone in a house owned or rented has to pay for local services. 

But what does it actually pay for? It is to support local services, rubbish collection, fire service, police, street lighting, libraries, public toilets, parks, street repairs and so on. But if the money is not spent wisely your town could end up bankrupt, like Birmingham last year.

Here where we live, street lights are left on all night, the new refurbished Eastern Prom had gardened areas, where trees were planted, however they weren't suitable for the salt air and died. They have all been replaced with the same trees at the cost of £1000 each!

New public toilets built by Cosy Corner, are often not working and the main town toilets don't open till 10 and close at 4! The block paved pedestrianised main street is a night mare, with many broken or slipped and stick up ready to trip someone, like many towns our pavements are broken and uneven. 

If our council tax is increased, I for one will be busy writing to complain at every opportunity.

And don't get me talking about our £8mill Medical centre.

Like a lot of places its not easy to get an appointment, and the number of Drs has dropped.. we've lived here 3 years and although I've had telephone appointments, as yet I've only spoken to the same Dr twice. I've recently learnt some GP practices are offering evening appointments and Saturday appointments. Ours doesn't, so by my reckoning it's closed for 104 days a year, that's nearly a third of the year.. what a waste of money.. No wonder our NHS is failing.

And Starmer says they will fix things, I'm not holding my breath, what about you?

Chrisxx

A very busy day, but exciting too!

 We've had such a busy day.. our new furniture was scheduled to arrive between 2:15 pm and 4:15 pm, so we were all vac-ed and clear for them. Our lounge looked really big, it is actually bigger than the average living room. 

But last evening I had a text message from the hedge cutting firm, who said he could come in the afternoon. I was not going to put him off we've had him booked for when he had time, for 2 weeks and it shouldn't affect the furniture delivery. 

At 10:20 am we had some one knocking on our front door, we both thought it was the furniture early, but no. It was the handrail for the new steps, which had been ordered 4 weeks ago! It was all happening together!

We had only just had a coffee, when a short while later the furniture did arrive and early and it looks amazing, Perfectly matches the silver green carpet and the teal colour we had the alcoves painted. We are now looking forward to our new curtains, which should be ready the week after next.

We do love them and are so pleased with our choice. And more importantly they are very comfortable. 

Then Dh said he would fix up the new hand rail! Well, that was a first for him. He usually takes a few days weeks or longer to get round to fix something.  So off he went and got all the gear to do it, yes we have the drill and bits and electric screwdriver all tidy in zippy up containers, looking very new.  He wasn't any time getting it done and I've been up and down them several times. It is perfect and I feel safe using the steps!

Then he fixed up another grab bar round the side of our bungalow pathway, where there is a steep step. All on the same afternoon!

And the hedge cutting firm came about 2 so that's all done..I went round with the weed spray for the edges of the drive and outside on the road, where new weeds had sprung up. I'm afraid my days of digging out those between the paver weeds are over, at 81 I need all the help I can get!

Today we plan to do the grass, I'll do the edges and a bit of transplanting more carrots into pots. We are trialing a new garden firm on Friday to do some weeding,  hope it proves to be ok. 

And we saw the hedgehog eating the meal worms Dh had scattered on the ground.

A very satisfying day and there is still the rest of the week to come.

Chrisxx

And then his brother came....

 In our bathroom we have a free standing towel rail which stands in front of the radiator. There's a small space between it and the side wall, about 4 inches,

It seems its the ideal space for cobwebs and when using the loo, it's possible to see a resident of that cobweb, it's one of the spindly legs' one, creepy!  

The other night I asked Dh to remove it, it seemed to be looking right at me, although you can't see any eyes. He's very kind and lifts it gently and pops it out of the window. So I can relax on the loo! I feather dusted the web in the morning, such a relief to know the bathroom was safe.

Then the next day, there in the corner was a web again and it looked like the same spider, was it his brother? Doesn't he look creepy??

So he had to go too. I'm not that frightened of them, they just make me feel that they are creepy and I can imagine them crawling on me, ugh!

How do you feel about them?

Chrisxx

Its a comfort.

 Every now and then I choose an easy read book, nothing too taxing but an author that I like, what I call a comfort read.  So I'm the same about TV programmes and Christine Walkden's TV show about her and her garden is quite lovely and very pleasant to watch.

A qualified horticulturist she travels all over the world giving talks and lectures. She's very down to earth, knowledgeable but also entertaining.

She gets on well with her neighbours especially Reg, who was 72 when this series were filmed (2005)

In the 6th episode, she is off to China to be a guide in some famous gardens for a Holiday Company and Reg and her other neighbour, Louise , have volunteered to look after her garden and her hundreds of house plants.

Before she leaves she gives them strict instructions on the watering of her precious garden. Personally I'd be really nervous to be left in charge of her garden, but Reg, just laughs and is his usual jovial self. And we see him with the hose spraying all round on the foliage, not as Christine had instructed, but he was smiling and happy doing it.

Dh and I once volunteered to water some friend's garden. It was a 15 min drive away and their instructions were for watering every other day. We used to go early-ish and have a cuppa and sandwich after the watering, as it was very pleasant in their garden, so no hardship.

When Christine arrived back there were a few plants a bit dry but on the whole all was ok.

To thank Reg and Louise and their other halves, she invited them for a Chinese Take Away and then after, she showed them some of her slides she had taken while away. There were a few yawns and Louise went to sleep!  There were a lot of slides!!

It's a lovely programme and she is easy to listen to. When talking about how she liked to eat her carrots, with new potatoes, courgettes and maybe some meat or not, she likes them with lashings of butter! She said, 'You don't get to be my size if you don't like butter!'

A very enjoyable programme, if like me you love gardening.

Chrisxx