21 May 2020 (Thursday) - Busy Busy...

As I scoffed my toast so Treacle was stomping round the living room proudly showing of the carrier bag that she wasn’t supposed to have. She loves having things she shouldn’t have – she doesn’t damage them in any way, she just loves showing off that she has stolen them.
Fudge was a worry this morning, turning his nose up at his brekkie. Last night he tucked into his boiled swede and the night before he yummed up a bowl of rice. Eventually we got him to eat some biscuits. Has he gone vegetarian, or does he just not like the really expensive special kidney-friendly food we’ve bought for him?

There wasn’t too many squabbles kicking off on Facebook this morning and my in-box was pretty much empty so I sent out a couple of birthday wishes and took the dogs out. With the Forestry Commission woods open we went down to Orlestone Woods. Since we were last there someone has fixed the pot holes in the car park (which was a result).
We had a very good walk round the woods and only saw one other person. It strikes me as frankly ridiculous that during the peak of the pandemic I was forced to walk the dogs round a crowded park when (had the woods been open) I could have walked for hours without having met anyone.
With walk walked we came home, had a cuppa and a Bakewell tart (without a cherry!), I hung out the washing and got on with painting fence panels. I got five and a half done before it got too hot to continue.

I came in, had a bit of cheese on toast, then cracked on with the ironing until my phone rang…
A couple of weeks ago I had a letter from the hospital telling me of a telephone appointment with the sleep clinic to see how I was getting on with my CPAP machine. (Five years too late, perhaps?) The letter said where I had to attend, who I would be seeing, and that I should take the CPAP machine for a service. And then I re-read it. A telephone consultation but I had to go to the hospital? I phoned them and was told that it was a telephone consultation. The specialist would phone me. The nice people at the sleep clinic admitted that the letter was confusing, but apparently the secretary lacked the ability to modify the letter template. I was told that it was easier all round for the clinic to send out a confusing and misleading letter and tell people what was happening when they phoned in confusion, rather than training the secretary on how to use Microsoft Word.
I would put in a complaint, but I’m getting sick of complaining about that hospital.

My telephone consultation was planned for half past two – I was an hour into a rather huge pile of ironing when the phone rang (ten minutes early). I was glad that I had a telephone consultation; had I taken the time to go to the hospital I would have put in a formal complaint. Some secretary-type asked me some questions from a list, said they needed me to send them an SD card from my CPAP machine (she said they should have asked for that four years ago), and in two minutes it was all over and done with. I had hoped to speak to the specialist about whether or not I should still be doing night shifts. I shall ask next time.

After another couple of hours I had the ironing done, and it had cooled down outside. I got another couple of fence panels painted, and also got a coat of paint onto some of the trellises. I was about to pack up when "er indoors TM" started sawing wood for repairing the roof of the arbour, so I helped there. I suggested that by painting the wood then she would save time later, so I picked up the tin and gave it a good shake. It was at this point that she told me she hadn’t put the lid on properly when she finished with it the other day…
Oh how I laughed…
It didn’t take that long to brush the paint down the drain.

Being Thursday we tuned into the geo-Zoom meet from the garden. Or "er indoors TM" did. I listened in the background (as I said yesterday I’m being a tad sensitive at the moment).
As I listened I tried unscrewing the roof panels from the arbour that "er indoors TM" wants to replace. They took some unscrewing, and half the screws snapped as they had rusted through. Mind you bearing in mind that I (actually Jose) put the thing together on Easter Sunday 2007, it has lasted well. All that is wrong with it is that a few of the roof slats need replacing, and the thing needs a coat of paint. I cost a couple of hundred pounds, but I think that was money well spent…

For a day’s holiday I haven’t stopped…

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