Bert

 

The Meadows at Stony Stratford

Britain has been battered by Storm Bert and while Bert has sent driving rain, high winds and floods to my area; my little home has remained warm and dry. The same cannot be said for Stony Stratford. The High Street was under water this week. The river had burst its banks again and the park area, flood plain and sports ground were big lakes.

I bumped into someone in Stony that I see at the swimming pool. He said he had stayed home for two days and this was the first time he had got out with his dog. He said the water had stopped rising and he had started pumping. His home backs onto the flooded meadows. There must have been a lot of homes in the area affected. I often think of the dream home I didn’t choose to buy because it had been flooded twice before 2021. But for that decision not to buy, I too could have been paddling through my home like so many others.

For one day this week, I stayed in and didn’t even make it into my garden. Over this week, I binge-watched BBC adaptations of the classics. I watched Bleak House, War and Peace and then I just couldn’t resist watching Pride and Prejudice just one more time. What wonderful TV! Bleak House is full of eccentrics – even eccentric actors like Johnny Vegas (Mr. Krook) played themselves so brilliantly.

Then of course War and Peace isn’t a happy story. Most of the men get blown to bits along the way while the sensible women make good decisions in their absence. The really redeeming bit is Pierre finally marrying Natasha – Only God knows why he didn’t ask her right at the start of the story. It is obvious they both love each other. That alone could have saved me hours of waiting for him to pop the question.

As for Pride and Prejudice, I can actually quote the Andrew Davies script word for word. The big highlight is Elizabeth Bennet’s rebuke of Darcy at the end of Episode 3. Though it is nice to know she fell for him when she saw the size of his house!

None of these synopses would get me a GCSE literature. In a way it is odd that I have been watching stories that I know already. They are such good reads and great entertainment– that is why they are classics, I suppose. I could easily watch them again before too long.

I have been out on my bike. I made a bad decision to ride through a puddle that stretched across the whole road. I thought I would keep my feet dry that way. How wrong I was. I hit a massive pothole that was hidden under water, I wobbled and then got wet anyway. If that is the worst that Storm Bert did to me, I have been lucky! Storm Conall - hot on the tails of Bert - has chosen to hit other parts of the UK. Again, this is lucky for lucky for those here.

The weekend was filled with tree lighting ceremonies. Wolverton is an especially friendly place and despite trundling a stroller with a flat tyre  along, Mattaya stayed asleep through all the carol singing and merriment and Ezra-Mae met loads of her new school friends. It was a lovely evening as was the Cosgrove one. 

I even made it to Ashridge with an old friend this weekend. The weather at the end of November has smiled on us after all.

The dog that had it all!

Very occasionally I do a bit of pet sitting. So far this year I have done it twice. It is a nice way to have the joy of a dog or dogs and other pets - mostly in very large, well-appointed properties. And, so it was last week that I had a four-day break with two dogs and a long-suffering cat. I mention this because this pet sit was so different and I more than fell in love with a naughty pup!

The house I did the sit in has potential and when the extension is finished it will be palatial. Unfortunately, between agreeing to the sit and doing it there had been a number of delays in the building work. It meant I had to take the dishes to be washed in another room and the floor of the extension was freezing cold. There were workers popping in doing bits while I was there so I knew it was a work in progress.

Add to the mix an 8-month-old golden retriever. He is gorgeous but like retrievers in general he ate everything. He managed to get the big bag of dog food off the table while I was out of the room and tuck into it. He ate my bread from the table while I popped to the next room to get cutlery and he ate my slipper. This meant that I had to walk around the cold floor in stocking feet. Argh.

The poor cat was terrorised by this pup. I had to keep her food out of his way. He even tried to eat her plastic bowl. I put everything I could on top of the fridge. Nowhere was far enough out of this dog’s way. However, when I sat in the snug and watched TV, this pup wasn’t content to sit near me. He had to sit on top of me. He was a larger-than-life, loveable mutt.

Now I am back home and into my normal routine. A little highlight was having a small birthday party for Nasser who is getting very old! Danielle brought the girls over and Ezra-Mae showed how well she can behave at the table. She really was grown up. Danielle made a birthday cake which probably had about 1000 calories a slice so we ate off each other’s plate so the calories didn’t count.

I have also finished my swim challenge this week. I have swum 150 miles since March 20^th. I have been away for more than 6 of those weeks too. With all the swimming, eating calorie-packed cake shouldn’t be a problem but it is. Perhaps I should get a dog of my own and take it for long walks as well as swimming. Maybe that should be my New Year’s resolution – More exercise; less cake!

 

Winter is upon us

Black Friday

Dark morning skies - Olney

I know from my travels how things and happenings from other cultures creep into my life and sometimes I can’t even remember how they got there. There are some things that have more than crept into our British lives and because I have been away for so long, they have become established, and I have no idea how they took hold. 

Black Friday is a shopping opportunity. I think it sounds like something terrible that should be avoided as black usually signifies bad things. I know where it came from – America. It is the day after Thanksgiving which is the third Thursday in November. As a family we did Thanksgiving when we were living in the Bahamas. It was a good opportunity to have a special meal. Nothing wrong with celebrations of that kind. That celebration is no longer on my calendar. I don’t particularly want Black Friday to come around either, but my email has been full of ads with offers I just can’t help but turn down. Bah Humbug! 

I had a bit of a grump about Halloween too. For weeks this year, the shops had been decorated with orange and black. When I was young, I enjoyed making a “guy” out of my father’s old clothes so that it could be thrown on a bonfire. We bought our own fireworks too. November 5th was a big thing in back then and now it is just a municipal fireworks display – a damp squib compared to the fireworks in SG. Few people even remember that it was once a command to light bonfires on that night to celebrate the king not being blown up. 

The most memorable November 5th was actually in the Bahamas. We went to a beach party to celebrate. After the display, one of the dads threw the old shells of the spent fireworks on the bonfire built from driftwood. We were sieged by the leftover casings that had ignited in the fire. It was scary stuff. I threw myself on top of my girls. How could I forget that trauma? It was us that nearly got blown up.

Christmas stuff has now been advertised since the end of September. Retail has taken hold of every opportunity to encourage people to buy. I used to smile about the way Deepavali lights morphed into Christmas and then Santa Claus would morph into a fat Chinese Mandarin for CNY. Because there were no seasons, these events helped with the passing of time. Of course, these events and the beautiful decorations encouraged people to visit Serangoon Road and Orchard where there were shopping opportunities but looking back I romanticise. 

Of course I shall pop into Central MK and Stony to look at the lights. I also realise the joy that these celebrations bring to the young. They will not remember the bargains bought in a Black Friday deal. These times will be in their happy memories though. In my dotage I see my past through rose-tinted specs. After all, it is within us all to remember the happy times over the bad.

Making memories

At the park with Nana

Cultured

The Wren Library

I passed on swimming Wednesday morning so that I could pop over to Cambridge for a meet up with Peter and Margy. It is difficult to not feel intelligent and cultured when you are surrounded by so many beautiful buildings. Margy’s choice for the day was a visit to the Wren Library at Trinity. It was opened in 1695 and houses an amazing collection of manuscripts, letters and first editions. A couple of my big takeaways were that Lord Byron was born poor, and he didn’t fritter his money away. He lived his life despite having little. His writings were so popular that there were forgery editions printed – Wow. That happened back then too.  

There was an illustration of the marriage of the Lamb in a religious book. This is a story from the Book of Revelation. This is something I had previously never heard of. And, A.A. Milne had awful handwriting. There is so much more I could gush about. I won’t. I feel a little bit smarter for having visited the place.

Of the more peculiar things, there were shield decorations on the ends of the bookcases. I would love to know whether they were whimsical, or they represented something or someone. One shield had a cicada sitting on top of a head wearing full-face armour. The mouthpiece of the armour looked like a duckface. This certainly wasn’t a good design for fighting. Maybe these were forerunners of cartoons.

We then went on to Wimpole Hall to visit the servants’ quarters. This was a guided tour by an exuberant docent. He was hilarious. It shows my age when some of the objects on display below stairs were actual things that were in my home when I was growing up. For example, there were suitcases like the leather one I have from Aunty Rose. The was a massive mangle, a soda stream, scales that my Nana used, and earthenware pots. Seeing these makes me feel positively antique.

What made the day especially nice was  being in the company of Margy and Peter. After the tour, we tramped across the misty grounds of Wimpole where rare sheep breeds grazed. These rare breeds produced the biggest lumps of sheep poo I have ever seen! The one the Margy didn’t see nearly sent her flying!

Peter is doing so well after his heart operation and Margy’s Mum has a new lease of life too. The NHS has done a wonderful job on them. We do moan about the state of our country. On this occasion, Thank you, NHS.

Across the pond there has been a completely different turn in culture this week. Americans have voted to make America great again. It didn’t happen the last time Trump was in power. I can’t understand what people over there think a felon can do to make their lives better. What will a great America look like? This time I feel a great foreboding. Already the richest have suddenly become $64 billion richer since the polls closed. I can see no way forward to slowing the climate crisis. Ukraine will be onto a loser and Palestine will disappear. This is a new culture, Jim, but not as we know it!

Note to Self

Note to self -  At my age and with my experience I feel I should be more prepared for what life throws at me. I set off on Monday morning for a long bike ride. As I had a cold, I didn’t want to go swimming and sniffle in the water – who would? I needed some exercise. The sky was blue and the temperature was warmer than normal. 

What could go wrong? I had dressed appropriately, checked the tyres and then set off in the direction of Castlethorpe. So far, so good. I pedalled around a few villages as the blue skies turned to grey and the air became filled with a misty rain which became increasingly wetter. By the time I reached Stoke Bruene I was wet. My jacket is showerproof and that was all. If I had worn my fluorescent cape, I would have been wet on the inside with sweat. I deserved a beer. 

Well- deserved cider

I sat in The Boatman damp. Supped my beer, felt much better and left. It was still damp outside so I could only get wetter. As I unlocked my bike I noticed my car fob on the floor. Then I noticed that my letterbox key was missing. These had both fallen off my carabiner while I was locking my bike and only the car fob was visible. I was convinced the letterbox key had fallen in the canal. Argh. Actually, the letterbox key was caught in my pedal. All good. 

I set off on my bike and cycled down a mushy, muddy tow path to home. It wasn’t far, just under 7 miles. I couldn’t cycle all the time as it was far too slippery, and from experience, I knew I would be crazy to risk the worst bits. Then it happened – yet another flat. I walked for nearly two hours. My poor heel doesn’t like uneven ground. My other heel got a blister. By the time I reached my house and dumped a really muddy bike in my garden, I was irked and sore. Suffice to say, I haven’t got round to fixing my bike yet. 

 I spent a day in London then I played tennis with a blistered heel. That wasn’t nice. Now at the end of the week, I had a birthday party - wonderful. Note to self. Even though Birthdays mark the passing of time, they are really lovely occasions. It is inevitable that we get older. I personally need to get wiser!

Ann's 80th Birthday