Kile, reading, writing and another camera shop closes

31 January

Kile is here, and don’t I know it! He and Jan are playing on the Wii and it’s driving me nuts. The constant chattering and bickering is continuous and drives me up the wall. I keep telling them that I shall throw it out and they just laugh at me, no damned respect in the hou … errr … flat.

You may wonder why I find it hard to do anything when there is such a distraction like those two playing on the Wii. Well, I’ve always been the same really. If I want to read, then I read, with nothing else going on around me. If I want to listen to music or the radio, then that is what I do, and I don’t read at the same time … and so on. I’ve read in Writing Magazine of so many writers who work with Radio 4 playing in the back ground, or their favourite music. That would drive me crazy, I’ve tried it and it the try didn’t last long at all. But here’s the strange thing; I can sit in a pub, no matter how busy it is, and read and write without problems. Strange eh?

I’m sure you are all aware of the change in shopping habits of us Brits, and I suppose of everywhere else in the world. Sadly the internet is killing the high street. Our nearest independent camera shop was Beryl Houghton’s in Coventry. I’ve used it on and off for years and I’ve always been impressed with them. Sadly, when they close today, it will be for the last time. After 60 years of trading they had no other choice. Now IO have no idea as to where the nearest independent camera shop is for us. London Camera Exchange have a shop in Leamington Spa, but that’s hardly local to us and its part of a chain, not an independent. I wonder how many other specialist shops will bite the dust because of internet shopping.

In 1606, the man we have to thank for the yearly silliness on November 5^th, Guy Fawkes was hung, drawn and quartered. It seems like a lot of hard and messy work for some poor bloke to have butcher a dead body for no reason I can see. The man was dead, so why all the extra bits? He was hardly likely to get up and walk away was he?

There’s a photo I want to share of my mother, if I can ever fine it that is. But until I do I shall have to be content with one of the others, like this one … 

A selfie, taken before they were all the rage.

And today’s funny …      

My child Mike, was playing doctor with his friend Jim. “I’m so sick” said my son, “Can you please take a look at me.” “Sure” said Jim taking out his toy stethoscope, after a few seconds of listening closely to his heart, he said sadly, “Oh Mike, you have a broken arm!

Sun shine, curtains, and congestion

30 January

We currently have bright sunshine over our garden area, but would you believe it, we have had to draw our curtains because the light is too bright for us to see the telly or Jan’s lappy screen. It all feels a bit odd.

Dorktown has two major roads running right through the town centre, the A444 and the A47. Obviously they are not major roads on a national scale but locally they are very busy. The A444 begins in Burton on Trent and runs on through Dorktown and into Coventry; it’s the main road that we use to get into Coventry. The A47 starts at Great Yarmouth through to Dorktown where it becomes the B4144, before becoming the A47 to the centre of Birmingham. There is a short distance where both roads come together in a one way system over the railway lines.

£15millions has been allocated to upgrade a major junction in the town where there is always congestion. The reason for this is the two nearby schools; the A444; access to the Hussy hospital; and drivers who need to get to Stockingford by missing the even bigger congestion by heading up Queens Road and Croft Road. Then add in the times when the M6 gets closed with traffic diverted Dorktown. What the town really needs is a bypass that takes all the through traffic off the current ‘bypass’ called Roan Ringway, which is in the middle of the town. Yet the planners refuse to even look at it!

I wonder why that is? Personally I have a feeling that the main reason is the obvious route for a ringroad would cut through the more affluent areas of town, like Whitestone, St Nicolas Park and the Long Shoot. Now I wonder why the county and town councils are afraid of these areas, or is it because that is where some of them live? Whatever the reason, a bypass is what we need and the sooner the better!

Tom came over for dinner yesterday and it all went off well. I changed my mind about slow-cooked Tom and did some mince n tatties instead. He must have been hungry because his plate was emptied quicker than Jan’s and mine. A bowl of ice cream followed as we watched the new Ronocop on Netflix. At 8 0’clock he wanted to go back home so Jan took him. Now this evening we have Kile coming for the weekend and I was planning spaghetti Bolognaise for dinner; but guess what, we used the mince last night. I knew I’d got it out of the freezer for something.

Today’s photo … 

It was taken in the Whetherspoons pub at the Merry Hell.

And today’s funny …

 
As part of my job as a preschool teacher I have to help the children put on their coats and boots. One day when school was over and the children were getting ready to leave, one child came over to me in tears “my boots are missing” she wailed. “they are in the corner” I said pointing to her boots. “Those are not mine!” she said, stamping her foot, “MINE HAD SNOW ON THEM!”

Next years dinner, bored and not watching what I'm doing!

29 January

Jan is off this afternoon to bring Tom over here for dinner. At long last I’ve a way of getting him into the oven. The heavy sauce is ready for when I’ve finished seal him. The worst part of course is that he will take so long to cook and won’t be ready until this time next year; ah well, just have to wait then.

I’m sat here wondering what to do next. Do I read or do I try to write, or do I watch telly? Oh the choices we have to make. What I fancy doing is to go off birding but it’s far too cold for that and with snow covering various areas in the area, and still falling, things won’t get any easier or warmer. It’s the thought of being in here in the warm that gives me the choices I have to make right now. Whatever I choose to do, I shall be thinking that I could be doing … or … It’s a hard life being retired ;-)))  

The engineer arrived on time yesterday to fit our new radiator and it’s working well. Once he was done and gone, the next job was to get all the towels we had used to try to dry out the carpet, washed and dried. Luckily we have a condenser/dryer so it didn’t all that long. Not only that, but it looks like the carpet hasn’t been stained by it all. I’m pleased by that seeing as I didn’t really want to make a claim on the insurance for it. There’s a £100 excess on it and then they bump up your premium after.

Now there’s daft! There I was happily typing away when I thought that it didn’t look right for some reason. Looking at the work count I realised that I was using the wrong file and had only 1300 words, not the 500K+ words it should have been. Not only that but I was struggling to see it properly and that wasn’t good at all; all sorted now though.

I’m babbling ... time for a photo … 

A thistle, I think.

And today’s funny …

When my grandson asked me how old I was, I teasingly replied, “I’m not sure…” “Look in your underwear, Grandma,” he advised, “mine says I’m 4 to 6.”