A Grumpy Day.

I've found it very hard to be the calm and cheerful person I aspire to be today. Too many things have sent me into a grumpy mood which I'm trying to overcome. First there was the early rising and leaving the house at the time I'm usually waking up with a cup of tea. The day was grey and wet, the traffic heavier than I anticipated and arriving at the surgery the sight of several cars waiting for a parking space in the surgery car park had me turning around and parking in a nearby residential street. I was just in time and soon fitted with the 24 hour blood pressure monitor. Very tight at all times, positioned so that it's uncomfortable to bend my elbow and the anticipation of it turning on every hour through the night. (Every half an hour or more during the day.) My mood was not improved when earlier this evening I looked at the NHS on-line information on the monitor and saw that I should have been asked when I go to bed, for the change in frequency, and more importantly asked to fill in a chart noting what activity I was doing each time a reading was taken. Which I wasn't. While I was at the surgery I enquired about the missing prescription and it turned out that it hadn't gone to Tesco's, in fact it hadn't gone anywhere. When I explained in a calm but slightly irate manner the sequence of events they printed off a new prescription and amazingly had it signed in a couple of minutes. I still had to take the prescription to a pharmacy to get the medicine and decided to take it to the pharmacy in Tesco's as I was going there anyway. Not a good move as there was a long queue of people at the pharmacy counter. I did a bit of shopping and went back when the queue was only 6 people. Handed in the prescription and after a bit more shopping returned and collected the medicine. 

On a better note I took back the fluffy pj bottoms and had the security tag taken off. However before going to Tesco's I had called in at B&M hoping to get doubles of the sofa and chair fleeces to put away for the future. The smaller patterned fleece was there but no sign of the large fleece which was very irritating. Nor was there the red fleece I had hoped to buy as a housewarming present for Vytas & Sally when they move to the house they are currently buying. As I'm working on my weight I couldn't indulge in a 'naughty' to cheer myself up but I did buy these packs of gift ribbon reduced from £1 to 10p. They should keep me going for a few years.

The early rain turned back into stormy weather on my way home so I spent the afternoon grumbling to myself, doing my exercises and knitting in between having the machine take my blood pressure.

Pictures from the web - Above The train line at Dawlish, south Devon. Here the railway line runs right next to the sea, something I used to look forward to on my travels down to Cornwall. Below -Porthcawl on the Welsh coast opposite Lynmouth. The surf report for Newquay, Cornwall gave the surf height at 22 ft. for anyone brave or foolish enough to venture out.

Wind and Rain.

After a brief moment of blue this morning strong winds heralded the arrival of Storm Brendan and a yellow weather warning. I believe the winds peaked earlier this evening with power cuts and trees down across the west of the country. Tomorrow morning should be quiet but it's due to get windier again in the afternoon.

This morning we had a visit from a chap to do an energy efficiency survey. You need one when selling a property and as the estate agent hadn't organised one when we first put the house on the market Peter organised it himself. It'll be cheaper than one through the agents. As we suspected the so called possible viewing never materialised. So that was most likely the estate agents trying to install false hope. I wish they wouldn't.

In the afternoon I was back sewing again and got the first of the seat cushions done. To get a good fit I pinned the fabric, inside out, over the cushion sewing the seams while the cover was on the cushion. It was only as I was nearing completion that I suddenly realised that because the cushion is not symmetrical the cover would have to go on the other cushion which is a mirror image of the first cushion. I'll just have to be careful to make sure I pin the fabric for the second cushion on the right ie the one that already has a cover, cushion. 

Before the rain became too heavy I was able to watch the birds at the feeders. The male blackbird was picking up fallen seeds from the ground and a pair of hedge sparrows were feeding on the fat balls. The other day I noticed that a robin was having difficulty getting to the fat ball feeder. It kept hopping up and trying to hover underneath the feeder. It had a go at clinging on to the feeder itself but didn't last long like that. The sparrows generally sit on an adjacent branch and lean across so I'm not sure why the robin didn't do that. I've now wired a thick twig through the feeder to act as a perch in case that helps.

Windy.

It's been a windy day. I wondered if I'd made the wrong call in not putting any washing in the machine but later heavy showers made their presence felt. 

I spent the afternoon on my knees working on the cushion cover and at long last it is done to the best of my ability. Now there are just the seat cushions to do.

Peter went out again to hunt down my prescription but guess what? ………… No sign of it and after some checking they think it's gone to the pharmacy at Tesco's. Why? And who knows if it's there or not?  What if it had been something I really needed from last Thursday when it was due? I'm up at the surgery on Tuesday morning so I'm going to try and make a complaint with the Practice Manager. Not much chance to see her/him then but at least I'll insist on seeing the senior pharmacist. Then to make my day I've looked in my bag of medicines I collected from Boots on Thursday, the bag that I asked the assistant to check before it came into my hands. In a sealed ie unchecked bag are 3 boxes of tablets that I had said I didn't need. Now they will have to be destroyed. While there is no cost to me directly repeated over millions of patients it's a significant financial loss to the NHS which is struggling for cash. 

In my spare moments I've been knitting my sparkly fingerless mittens. One is done and the first stage of the second is done. It's not the actual second mitten but a test to see where I should begin knitting if I want the 'random' colours to match. Once I've made a mark I'll have to undo all of this test piece and then begin again from the mark. Extra work but on the bright side I'm getting better at knitting with 4 needles. 

Wet.

Today has been grey and wet. The morning mist soon blurred out the view with first Hartland disappearing, then the sand dunes and eventually the second bend of the River Taw. Right now it's raining quite heavily.

I've spent the afternoon working on the cushion cover with Speedy lending a helping hand by rearranging the strips of tape and then attempting to knock all the things I was using from the stool I'd put them on. I ended up having to keep the roll of cotton in my pocket after he decided to bat it across the floor. Having worked out a plan for the cover, leaving a space at the back so that cushion still attached to the frame with the Velcro, I set to work pinning and stitching. Usually I aim to stop any 'work' around five o'clock but hoping to get the cover done I carried on. By quarter past six I admitted defeat and simply plonked the cushion still with the cover on inside out and pins in some seams back on the sofa and chucked a throw over it. It'll have to wait until tomorrow for completion. I'm also thinking about changing the not very effective elastic around the lower section for Velcro to pull the cover in. Still the end is in sight.

Peter had to walk into town so he made another attempt to collect my missing prescription. After waiting for over half an hour he was told 'they didn't have it yet,'. This time they didn't even say the paperwork was in transit. Even if they need to use physical paperwork how long does it take to transport the papers from the surgery which is about 2 miles away? I was told they were 'in transit' on Thursday. Even I could have walked that distance in an hour or less. A good thing I can do without the stuff which is a swap back of a spray for my rhinitis as I still have the old not as good stuff.

Sunny.

It's been a bright and sunny day with a bit of a chill in the air. I've spent most of my day, or at least the afternoon, out in the back garden. Not gardening but brushing back the pile of our large fluffy throw from the sofa which had been washed yesterday. It's easiest to do while the throw is hanging on the washing line and for once I got both sides of the 7ft x 7ft throw done in a day. I had an old work fleece on and somehow my bare legs (still wearing shorts most days) didn't feel at all cold. The cold doesn't seem to affect my legs but my toes, in flip-flops, eventually felt like ice. The brushing generates a lot of fluff which gets everywhere including on my eyelashes and in my mouth. To clean up the fluff  I brought the hoover out into the garden. Last year proved that hoping the fluff would blow away was not the best idea. (My neighbour also hoovers her decking occasionally.) Yesterday's application of bleach to the paving slabs proved effective against the green so I mixed up more bleach and water and swilled it over some green patches on the decking. 

I also brought the dehumidifier up from the garage to keep the condensation in the conservatory under control. Despite the garage roof getting a coat of sealant in the summer the garage feels a bit damp so everything stored in there will need a good clean once we move.

Wet.

The day began with sunshine and blue skies which later turned dark grey and dumped lots of rain.

The lady that was supposed to collect the two sun loungers later changed her mind so I contacted the next (out of four) person who had asked and she came after collecting her son from school. She recognised me but couldn't place me and it turned out I had taught her son in infants school.

In the morning I walked into town to collect my prescriptions. I'm glad I took my umbrella along because I ended up walking home in torrential rain. Walking back up Pilton Street the age of the buildings means that many of the down drains empty onto the pavement so that I had to step over streams of water. How I wished I had been wearing my wellington boots. In Boots (the chemist) I got the pharmacy assistant to open my sealed bag of medicines so that we could check them. This was partly to avoid any nasty surprises due to recent changes once I got home and also so that any unwanted medicines wouldn't be wasted. Even if a box is still sealed once it leaves the pharmacy if you return it, a medicine has to be destroyed. That's to avoid the possibility of malicious tampering. As it turned out there was one item I didn't need so that was removed but I'm waiting for one thing because the paperwork from the surgery is still in transit. I did also hand over some unwanted tablets to be destroyed rather than contaminate landfill. I had my usual look through the charity shops and the final Christmas reductions without much luck.

Now that the chairs have gone I had a final tidy up of the conservatory ready for any viewings. (The litter tray goes outside with a lid on.) And then I finally made a start on the cover for the sofa back cushion. Not much more than cleaning off all the bits of cut thread from where I removed the elastic and laying the cushion on the cover to check the size while thinking how to plan the cover. If it was just a matter of making a cover that enclosed the whole cushion with a long zip opening that would be quite easy. My problem is that there is a long horizontal strip of Velcro that secures the cushion to the back frame to prevent it sliding down. I have enough Velcro to sew a strip on the back of the new cover but then the cushion might still slip down inside the cover. My quandary is do I ; not bother with the Velcro at all? sew the Velcro to the new cover? or leave an opening in the back of the cover so that the leather cushion is in contact with the Velcro? I think I'll see what happens if I place some fabric between the cushion and the Velcro on the frame.

One more event to day was my phoning the highways people about a pothole in the main road. The roads in Devon are generally badly maintained and potholes are quite frequent, much to the annoyance of drivers and cyclists. I was concerned about this one because I felt it was worse than usual. It was about 18" across and a good 6" straight down which alone would be enough to wreck tyres or suspension and could throw a cyclist or biker off especially once the rain filled it and masked the depth. What was more worrying was the presence of 6-8 exposed electric cables in the hole. I thought that being on the main road any number of people would have reported the hole but when I rang the highways people no one else had reported it. The chap I spoke to thought the cables might be traffic censors but he did say it could be a dangerous situation and would get it looked at asap. So that was my good deed of the day.

Wet.

Another grey and misty day which turned into rain. For me it's been another cleaning day. The cooker got a bit more than its daily wipe over, oven door glass taken out for a scrub with a Brillo pad and a lot of tricky corners degreased as well.

The conservatory got a second going over, the floor scrubbed and then I discovered more rust and mold on the sun loungers. After giving them a good scrub with bleach I put them up on the 'free' site and hopefully they are being collected tomorrow. My dirty bleach water was poured on to the outdoor slabs around the conservatory to kill off the green algae growing on them. After so much work on my hands and knees I decided that not to begin sewing but did more general tidying up around the house.