"Next-day" Delivery!

We have got so used to having stuff delivered to our door within twenty-four hours of clicking the "Buy" button that my evolving trauma with Amazon publishers seems nothing less than a catastrophe. I have been promised the delivery of books for almost a month now. I was finally given a delivery window between the 22nd and 24th October. I became hopeful - excited even. I expressed my joy of awaiting the delivery on Linkedin. That joy is yet to materialise. 

All the promises have come to nought. I attended the Milton Keynes Indie Book Fair on Saturday 25th with nothing to show off but a few bookmarks. Argh!!! I presented my book on stage reading from my laptop. I explained that "next-day" delivery and Amazon's failures have left me with no books to sell. For once, none of this has been my doing. Yet, there I was sitting next to a palm, a coffee pot and not a lot else for a whole day watching people wander through Milton Keynes Shopping Centre. Exciting!

At the book fair

Naser started off the day with me but left. Friends popped by to say hello. I popped off to the loo. One lady asked if I had Agatha Christie. I told her she's dead and the fair had live authors as of now. A few people came to tell me about their lives. One told me he went to a university with a tribal chief. As I said, Exciting!

I would like to say that other parts of my week have really been exciting in comparison. Bits haven't. I found out that my left heel must now wait until December 16th for an injection. I had the initial MRI on April 4th. The results were given to me on July 22nd. Since then I have had three cancelled appointments for a steroid injection. Thank God I don't have the same issue with my left heel that I had with my right one. It is an overuse injury. I can't help overusing it despite the pain. Ouch. 

I was told in the initial flurry of information that I needed three weeks to rest from the procedure. Each time it has been postponed, I have had to fill up my calendar. At least with an automatic car, I will still be able to drive and I'll probably be able to cycle in a low gear too. I wrote a letter to MKUH, asking them if I should book myself in for a future hip replacement, knee replacement and open heart surgery in anticipation of future needs. As of yet, I have had no reply. Perhaps that reply will arrive eight months down the road. 

Ann turns another year older

On the bright side, Ann had yet another birthday celebration and what a lovely day it was too. Time slips by so we miss each other's news and at times like this we talk non-stop to catch up. At one point I decided it would be better if I spent the night in Harpenden as I had been on the bubbly. Adrian's offer was almost too good to turn down... discretion being the better part of Valerie - or something similar - means you will never know exactly what that offer was... Needless to say, I got home safely and in time to write this. 

Strikingly Normal

Sometimes I look back on a week that is ordinary and uneventful. The week slipped through my mind like sand slips through fingers. sitting here typing, nothing stands out as being special. I cycled, I swam, I played tennis... tidied up the house, swept the leaves from my courtyard, read emails. In fact there was so much of the mundane I wonder how I got through it. 

Obviously there were some things that that happened that were out of the ordinary: there always are. It is just that I have looked back and they haven't registered -  like spending two days at the orchard this week. On Tuesday, the regular Orchard day, we had a visit from two police officers. They looked around and offered advice - most of which involved us spending money. On July 3rd this year after one act of theft and vandalism, we were offered a dedicated officer to support us. This officer was so dedicated, they didn't turn up or even contact me and then eventually another officer was assigned to our case. He and his sidekick finally arrived on October 14th. Now that is service! It took just four months and further acts of vandalism and theft before we saw a police officer in the flesh. At least I now have a contact card and a direct line now. Small progress.

On Friday, we hosted a corporate group at the orchard. I was expecting at least ten volunteers but only four turned up. They worked their socks off for six hours and promised to return to do more. Previous groups have come from all over England. Last week another corporate group had someone over from Canada mucking in and doing jobs around the orchard. In contrast, Friday's group were entirely local. Because there were only four of them, I managed to do some stuff around the orchard myself. I hardly noticed the time slip by. 

Just like school plus a beer or two

On Sunday, I met up with old school friends in Leighton Buzzard. The last time we met, I was fifty. Time really has slipped by. By the time I arrived at the venue, I was worried that I wouldn't recognise anyone. I was sure, however, that I hadn't changed at all in the intervening years. Actually, there really wasn't anything to worry about. We slipped into conversation about the old days when life was rosy and the sun always shone etc... It was lovely to see everyone and we plan to make it an annual event. Perhaps!

Back to normality, Nicholas and Naser met at my place on Saturday. We talked about all sorts, but mostly how to solve big world problems. Among ourselves, I think we have a few good solutions and they are all strikingly normal. 

Our hardworking, corporate group at the orchard

Blinded by the light

The Harvest Moon.

It is that time of the year when the sun is low in the sky and blinding. For much of my morning rides to Wolverton I cycle directly into the morning sun and it is a little bit scary especially as the canal is so close. The shadows are black and the sun flashes blindingly through the trees. For much of the trip I pedal forward into the unknown. I have become rather pleased to see a dull, overcast sky as it means I can see where I am cycling too. The thought of landing in the canal doesn't thrill me despite enjoying the odd dip in cold water.

I cycled to Potterspury last Saturday. The only way to get there is via the A508. It shouldn't have been too busy on a Saturday afternoon, but it was. Argh...At least the sun didn't blind me on this jaunt - small mercies. This is not a long trip by the way. Potterspury is the next village to where I live. Sammi, on the other hand, cycled from London to Birmingham last weekend to go to a football match. He then caught the train back and spent a short time at my place and then spent the night with Danielle before returning to Brighton. Cycling that sort of distance is more hardcore than I am up for these days.

A surprise visitor

Danielle is also into cycling. She takes the girls in the trailer which is attached to the back wheel of her bike. The girls love it and Danielle is getting fitter by the day. There is one bit of the trip between my place and hers that requires a bit of effort. This is the steep path that leads off the canal to Old Wolverton. It is a much shorter version of the British Club hill in Singapore. I make sure I am in first gear and then pedal hard from the bottom. Danielle, on the other hand, takes a speedy run up to the slope. We were cycling together. I was ahead and going slow. Danielle put a spurt on and shouted at me to get out of the way. I stopped all together and she made it up the hill. She is definitely getting fitter!!! I walked up.

Diane and Jeremy came over this weekend so we went to the Barley Mow where there was a "Sausage and Cider" festival. For this, there was a special menu with very special punctuation problems. "Vegetable's" abounded but possessed nothing. The butternut squash was homemade too... That was a treat. I would have been less impressed had it been home-grown. It takes silly English teachers to get the giggles over a menu, especially when the waitress couldn't see the funny side of it. We set off home, thinking of all the alliterated food and drink options we could celebrate... "beer and burgers", "coffee and cake". 

I also went to the Repair Cafe in Wolverton this weekend. What a treat that was. My printer now works without chewing paper. I just need to locate the spare inks now and I'm in business. What a lovely idea the repair cafe is - and so busy. It is testament to great community projects. I also picked up some homemade chutney which was on sale as a fund raiser. Wonderful...

We just need to get through the winter now. 

As time slips by

Melanie pointing to her house across the valley

This week was quite a week. It was a week when Storm Amy whipped through parts of the UK and disrupted life for many, Meanwhile, I made it to Shropshire to visit my old neighbour, Melanie. We had both lived on Dairy Farm so naturally we talked a lot about the "old" days. We know that Dairy Farm isn't what it once was. The peace has been punctured and the greenery demolished. Since I left, there has been so much construction outside the condo and most of Pang Sua forest is no more. There is now a three-lane road that now runs past our once quiet haven. It is sad. Our days there were happy ones.

Melanie now lives in a small hamlet whose name sounds a bit like it could have belonged to a 1930s war correspondent. I could imagine Whitcott Keysett slamming the keys on his Olivetti to get his latest updates dispatched to a national newspaper in another country. They don't name people like that anymore. I have a thing about English place names probably as a result of being brought up in Leighton Be Buggered.  

Melanie's house

Melanie's house in Whitcott Keysett overlooks a valley. It is a wonderful, listed barn set in quite a lot of grounds. Apparently Mark took three days mowing the "lawn"!!! It was from that barn that we saw the driving rain from Amy cross the valley between us and Clun, the nearest town. Fortunately, my trips to and from there weren't affected by the weather. The biggest problem  on my trip was the single-track roads. If you meet another vehicle, you have to reverse. On the way to the house I had to do this three times - something Melanie was surprised at because she told me there is very little traffic on the roads. Then when we walked to Clun, it was busy again. So I am to be blamed for the unusual busy-ness. Hopefully the traffic has calmed down now I am home again. 

The area is close to Offa's Dyke. This is something I plan to walk when my left foot has been repaired. We did a bit of walking and ended up in a pub. It was one of those pubs where other tables join in conversations. I was duly told off for pronouncing "Clun" wrongly - embarrassing! Other than that, it was a joy to learn about the locality; and what I learnt, I fell in love with. Melanie has found a really wonderful part of the country to settle in.

On the world front, I am now in conversation with people I know who have already bought my book. These few people come from four continents. So while I might not have quite hit the "best seller" list, I have got a wide reach. As time slips by, I might actually get the books I ordered delivered to my door. I want to hold one in my hand! How pathetic of me.

PS. Last week I mentioned that Jewish people worldwide would need to look over their shoulders after all that has happened in Gaza. Then this week, we had news of a Synagogue being targeted in Manchester. On that same day as two people died in Manchester, another thirty-five were killed by the IDF in Gaza. Sadly, those thirty-five aren't important enough for us to pause and mourn while for the two who were killed in Manchester, we have been asked to respect Jewish rituals put gatherings and protests on hold. Total bias in our media breeds contempt for the actions of our government, sad to say.   

We were hopeful...

Numbers

 It's all Greek to me. This is the week that I have been obsessed with numbers. Every morning I check Amazon books to see where my book is the rankings. When it was first published on the site it ranked over a million down the rankings. Amazon has that many books for sale! I would never have guessed. Over the days it has gone up and then slipped down again. Imagine my delight when I saw it had reached number 2 in Middle East history/ biography. This leads me to ask the question: how many people have bought my book for it to reach that rank? 

Before the swim

My support team

On another string of thought, I have been preparing for the Brighton 5k open-water swim that was postponed from July. Last July I was raring to go. I was ready to do the swim and confident that I could complete it within the time. Now not so much. The last two times I have tried to do 5k in the pool, I have had to give up because of agonising cramp. Added to that, I have a dodgy earache and a sniffle. I promised myself I'd give it my best shot...I did. However, I failed. I missed the first buoy I was supposed to turn at and had to go back and round it, then I overshot the one at the far end of the course by such a long way that a nice young man on a paddle board told my to hop on and he'd paddle me back to the course. I did and instantly got griping cramp in my hamstring. He phoned the safety boat that then towed me close to shore and I swam in from there. I only completed 2.5k. 

Even worse, my cramp was so bad, I couldn't stand up so I got out of the water on all fours and was helped up the beach by two of the organisers. I can happily say I wasn't the only one who needed help and I wasn't the first one. Two of the competitors who were out before me had become overly cold and then at the cut-off time, there were still twenty swimmers in the water. Hopefully with all this going on, they will have forgotten about the old lady with cramp!

The car is finally fixed. The wing mirrors fold in and I am happy once more. The funny thing is, I still use my left foot on the clutch that isn't there and try to change gear when I slow down. The previous hire cars had seven gears so I was going up and down through the gears all the time on my jaunts around town. Silly me. Why I can't unlearn what I have been doing while my car was being repaired, I'll never know. 

While we are on the topic of numbers, I am pleased to see so many countries supporting Palestine. It should have happened years ago. We just need to support them getting their land back and giving them stability, security and safety. My biggest concern is that Israel has gone above and beyond in promoting a future "Hamas" through its barbarity and disproportionate response to the initial attacks. Sons and daughters seeing their families killed will find it hard to forgive and move on. Also, Israelis around the world have been complicit in not speaking out against the actions. They too will be looking over their shoulders for some time to come. For Netanyahu, there will be no victory, however many Palestinians he has killed. He is a war criminal of the lowest kind. He is the loser just like I was in the swim this weekend.

Eating squash flowers at Anne's

Coffee

Sammi in his Community Garden!

One Elephant, Two Elephants...

Keep counting and breathe deeply. I should be happy. Thame Crash Repair - the company that are repairing my car -  told me that my car would be ready on Tuesday 16th September. Wonderful, I thought. This is the end of driving a hire car that has cost the insurance company over £90 a day for the last seven weeks. I went into planning mode and rearranged the planned service on my car. I found there was no way I could get the MOT done at the same garage on the same day. This meant involving more planning and I needed to let the car hire company know that I was returning their car. 

It only took me about ten phone calls to co-ordinate this. Then I was told on Monday that the car wouldn't be ready on Tuesday. It would be ready on Wednesday. Again I went through the process of rearranging and co-ordinating getting the crash repair place to deliver the car to the garage for its service, for the car rental people to pick the car up the following day and for the other garage to postpone the MOT for one more day. All this took time. 

Things are never simple and a little human intervention from the various companies involved would have made my ordeal much easier. I got an email demanding the return of the hire car on 15th September. I called them again and told them this had already been sorted. I got nasty emails and a phone call from the Toyota dealership saying I had missed my service appointment. No I hadn't. I told them I had to cancel. That was not the only phone call I got from them confusing the planning. On top of that, my insurance company threatened to cancel my policy because they had no driving data from me. This was the second warning. I contacted them previously, got an apology and then they sent another warning out. I scored well over 80/100 when I was driving. I had the numbers to prove I was a good driver and still they were nasty to me. 

I was told I could collect my car on Thursday!!! With excitement and purpose I got ready to pick up my car. I got to the garage and it wasn't there. It hadn't been delivered from the repair company. Eventually I did pick it up by the close of play on Thursday though and as a sympathy note, my garage did the MOT despite saying they couldn't. Then I needed to apologise to the MOT garage for mucking them around. This is but a small summary of my ordeal. The more mundane bits have been omitted. I won't tell you what I had to go through to update everyone of my new timings. So why the delay? Well, the crash repair team ordered the trim for the passenger side and received the trim for the driver's side more than once. This small bit of stupidity has cost the insurance company so much more because of delays caused by error. Errrh. 

I am going through similar frustrations with HMRC. I joined a webinar to learn about the new developments -  MTD - Making Tax Digital. I then had a look at the suggested software I'll need to use. This has to be compliant with the HMRC and cover all the areas I receive income from. So far I haven't found one that fits my needs. Then I went to sign up as a user to get used to the new procedure. That part of the HMRC website is currently not working. OMG HMRC WTF! MTD - Making Things Difficult.

Keeping breathing deeply... one elephant, two elephants, three eleph...

...at least the village school September fair was relatively dry...

...and loads of fun

Rain stopped play

Sheltering from the rain

 At the Community Orchard we celebrated the coming of Autumn by opening it up for Heritage Week. Our spot was 2-5pm on Saturday afternoon. We also hosted the Scarecrow festival at the same time. All this needed a bit of planning. The only thing you can't plan for is rain. 

Because we are still experiencing vandalism, I thought it would be a good idea to get to the orchard by 11 to set up the gazeboes and the rest of the stuff we need to make the orchard ready for our event. Normally we would have got things ready on the Thursday and left it out until the day. No more. When we got there, the "Stickman" scarecrow had been broken up by vandals  - what a surprise! Danielle had worked hard to get it made. This time she needed help to fix it. It was unusually hot in the morning. I sweated my way to getting the place ready. We used wheelbarrows to empty my car full of beer, cakes and gazebos. That alone was an effort. At the same time the Wildlife Trust and the Town Council put up their stalls. For a couple of hours it was "All Go!"

The stickman

People came wandering through the orchard from early morning on, following their Scarecrow trail. Ours was on the floor in bits. This was a  big message to the local community that there are idiots living close by! We advertised the afternoon event and most people were keen to come back. By opening time when the music started and the refreshments were ready, the place was packed. We were heading for an all time best event. Then it rained. People squashed up under the gazebos. It was that heavy, wet rain you just can't go out in. Soon as it eased most people left. For the rest of the afternoon it was quiet - apart from the music. One of the cakes I made was untouched. Maybe it didn't look appetizing - nonetheless, it is always a kick in the teeth when no one wants to eat the food you make. 

Juicing

Childrens' artwork

By 5pm the event had fizzled out, dampened by the rain no doubt. We dismantled the gazebos and put everything away. I was exhausted and I hadn't done any exercise for two days! When I got home, I spread the wet canopies out across my floor and then got up early on Sunday morning to fold them up. Sunday, of course, was a sunny day - a perfect day for tennis. If only it had rained overnight and not in the middle of our event things would have been so different. C'est la vie.