What are you all up to

Arrived at Abbey Wood today. Surprisingly, the M25 was relatively light so only took around 3 hours from Bristol. Tomorrow isn’t looking great, weather wise, so not sure what the plan is, might have a look around Greenwich. We’ll visit the Tower Of London on Wednesday.

I assume all IKEA stores are the same? There has always been two ways round, the long way and the short way depending on whether you are shopping for large items or accessories. If you can't make up your mind they are very clever by placing the cafe in between the two so you can have a coffee whilst you decide! We enjoy having a general browse although as a former shop keeper I am not sure they always use a logical way of displaying their goods. If I want a light bulb I want them all in the same place rather than looking all over the lighting department. I don't think we have ever escaped from IKEA without buying something we probably didn't need!!!

David

Yes. I had to replace both of my rear ABS sensors, as I was getting a whole range of alerts (on screen) that on the face of it, were only vaguely related. All ok now.

Had 3 full on days, mainly of restocking plants for the garden and part of the time taken up with making space for them.

Whilst Forget-me-Nots are colourful and plentiful they have come to their end so some Annuals and Perennials chosen and installed, under MiLs beady eye. Actually she's invaluable. Her father was head gardener at a "House" in Scotland but WWii put paid to that so she's accumulated a lot of knowledge and our go to garden nerd.

Some bathroom tiling maintenance and general shopping for food and clothes has kept all of us busy.

Hope one and all are well, particularly DEBSC and OH.

Hiya David. I fear that the NHS is in a sorry state. My OH has been struggling for quite some time and is pretty much in constant pain. Problems with her hip, knees and neck, possibly all connected. She’s done the physio thing and is awaiting an appointment with the skeletal dept. It might be that a hip replacement is on the cards, gawd knows how long that might take. 
As for getting an appointment with the doctor, we have to jump through hoops to get one, it’s all done online now. I remember when home visits were the norm. We’ve also experienced issues with prescriptions getting lost in the system. All this said, I don’t blame the doctors, I can understand that they must be under tremendous pressure, too many patients, too few doctors. Incidentally, our local practice is under threat of closure, due to lack of funds. I wrote to our MP two months ago, raising my concerns. I’ve had no response.

Freddy

I think there was clearly a slip up by my surgery in that an instruction wasn't actioned which caused a four week delay. In fairness to MK Hospital they acted PDQ once they had the instruction. I had a hip replacement in 2010 and once the decision was made it was done within 3 months. Margaret has been told she needs a hip replacement and she is currently in quite a lot of pain. She has been sent to a private medical company by her surgery, initially we thought to have a steroid injection in her hip but when she got to the appointment she was told it was pointless and it wouldn't help and it was then she was told she needed a replacement. Interestingly this company have their own hospital in MK and she could be treated there and it might only take 5/6 weeks. But, there is always a but, as she has had bypass surgery they might not be willing to undertake the operation because they have no emergency facilities and if she has to have it done at MK Hospital it could be as long as a year. Margaret is also waiting for her second Carpal Tunnel operation which we thought would be just after Easter but that hasn't materialised as yet. I think the trouble with MK is that a large proportion of the population moved here in the late seventies/early eighties and its a bit like a reverse baby boom, we are all in our seventies and eighties now so probably putting a disproportionate strain on the Orthopedic teams!!! I hope people don't have to wait too long for their ops

David

Micky, If you head down to Llanbedr, just south of Harlech and go up the Afon Artro valley it can be rewarding for seeing Grey Wagtails and Dippers in the river and Pied Flycatchers and Wood Warblers among other warblers in the woods.

If you want a decent estuary then head to Penmaenpool as there's a disused railway line which is a walkway now. The RSPB has a hide, or used to, overlooking the estuary. Again, there should be warblers in the adjacent trees.

Now back home and catching up with chores washing and as it was dry today have made a start on the mowing and strimming as grass about 1 foot tall but taller in some areas OH did some with ride on and I did some with small petrol mower and strimmer what we have done looks a lot better but a lot more to do so will wait for another dry day as storms forecast for a few more days and now raining.

Car needs a clean but again weather needs to improve.

A lot of Swallows around here today lovely to hear them calling.

We visited the Imperial War Museum today, as planned. Made the mistake of going by bus. It’s not that far away from site, but getting there took well over two hours. Outside the museum are two 15” guns that were used on the Dreadnought class destroyers, WW1 era. They are absolutely enormous! Entry to the museum is free, although you are encouraged to make a donation. Inside, the exhibits are quite impressive, among others, I was quite taken with the cutaway Merlin engine, incredible engineering. There are lots of personal accounts and actual footage of various battles and events. Lots of poignant stuff too. If one wanted to take it all in, it would be easy to spend the best part of a whole day there, it’s really well presented. I can thoroughly recommend a visit, just take the train (underground)!