Thursday, April 30, 2026
CT scan tomorrow
Tesco
We are rather low on veg in the fridge. There is some stuff in the freezer, but a tesco visit or lidl may be in order.
M
trajectory of pigeon takeoff?
Just wondering if pigeons sitting on the bus shelter may leave their mark?
M
butterflies and swifts
Garden full of butterflies in sense that there is always visible activity. Mostly blues at the moment.
Swufts have returned to the skies, but rather few so far.
M
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
recycle metal coffee capsules
I wonder where you can recycle these unmarked capsules we got from Maidenhead when they cleared out their old machine.
Will try Waitrose.
M
more earphones
Firstly I got the ear pieces in the wrong way round. You should just look at the open box, and it is obvious.
At the moment all the stuff is coming out of the left ear, but this is a very limited test.
I now need someone to call me for real.
M
earphones
Got my ear pieces working.
It seems to be mono in the left eat at the moment for some reason.
Quite clear.
Will try and make sure it is always active.
Uses bluetooth of course.
M
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
holes drilled
I obviously was asleep and did not hear the drilling. Apparently 8holes only drilled, and nothing fixed in them yet. Presumably Jonathon will do the rest. Took something like half an hour for two guys.
Not sure I understand what the problem was. Would a bit messy and primitive. I assume that I might get to see just what sort of device J will put in the holes, and how it will be secured, while allowing things to be changed or moved.
M
14,000 steps
Doing the first half of nestbox count, and fives, has left me exhausted.
M
mouse in pantry
Hearing
Funny how somw bits of my memory have disappeared. So for instance, i remember bird songs, but not their names, and I remember bird names but not their songs. This is of course a simple version of what is generally happening.
The link between the two is very simple, and forgotten!
M
.
Hole Drilling
Expecting man to drill 32 holes for screwing down the pagoda. No sounds yet.
I reckon on 2 hours work, with pre-formed metal half rings being hammered into place. I reckon something like 600 Pounds total bill if using stainless steel easy-fit modules at about 30 points.
We will find out.
M
Old lodge
Keith Valentine drove me there first thing and back after lunch.
Checked first half of nest boxes, as now constituted. And back for coffee. Quick inspect of south heath and back for sunny lunch.
There are masses of mole hills on the strip of land along the road from the gate to the wood west of shed. I dont remember them from earlier years.
M
Monday, April 27, 2026
network connection
I think this machine disconnects from the network after some time interval. Not sure where the setting would be.
M
tamulosin and senna
Time to order at the doctor's. The paper system at reception may be best, as anima still seems to have problems.
Check the catheter bags at the same time.
M
Sunday, April 26, 2026
Rob's beech tree
The beech is fine, laden with buds.
It is surprisingly late, but there are none close by to compare wit
I like the idea that beech trees actively encourage pigeons to eat their leaves and buds In order to take advantage of the resulting fertiliser. Maybe that is what they did last year, and hence the bumper crop now.
In a life time they only need to raise a single seed.
The system must have evolved over time, to out compete other tree
species. So this lone beech may have a good strategy. Maybe busting a gut every five years, producing buds and seeds that pigeons hate, and relaxing between these efforts, attracting pigeons and gaining strength from the fertiliser.
The local populations should optimise by only a fifth doing the good buds each year.
Fun
M
telephone ears
Found them by my bedside. The package is much smaller than I thought.. less than a matchbox.
Must test it asap.
M
startup
Not sure why this machine seems slow getting started. It should be permanently loaded.
Maybe I switch it off.
Must take more notice.
M
Saturday, April 25, 2026
Monday
Will go first thing to waitrose in tonbridge. On way back will get off at paydens and collect my catheter bags.
The box should not be very big or heavy.
M
Ivy
Did quite a lot of work taking ivy off the wooden fences. A big green tub full is now in the black bin.
Might have killed some bits on neighbours side, but they are not open to view, as there are bushes.
M
orange--tip
Saw one in the back garden. Not sure I remember having seen any here before.
Lots of blues of course.
M
Friday, April 24, 2026
Rob
tesco stamps and cards
They still do stamps, and their catds are not too bad. At least you get points, and the prices are competitive.
M
Jono card
Success sending birthday card. But what a pain finding something which accepted things after first collection, ie 9am. Had to go back to place near tesco.
I suppose email etc really has killed off most post.
M
Thursday, April 23, 2026
lidl
It might be a good idea to check the offers of lidl plus on the bus down to the shop.
Getting the bus near the surgery is perfectly good and horizontal.
M
catheter bags
Should be available monday morning.
Dont know the size.
May be best to collect on way back from waitrose?
M
the hard option
I am realising I always prefer the hard option to a physical or other situation.
It is partly a test run, and also a learning process.
One is always learning new tricks of the trade. How else is one going to learn? Well asking someoneelse for a start?
M
Should do some hoovering soon.
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
BT
Guy came. Very helpful.
Not sure why he came. He did not know, and proclaimed the network fine. On the phone bt had mentioned 2 problems. Anyway nothing.
He did solve the beeping problem. This is to say a caller left a message. It beeps until you read it. The older phone does not have the ability to beep for this. Solved simply by listening to messages.
M
Rum
T is enjoying an after tea rum, which lasts to bed time.
Still has some bug, or similar.
M
Lidl
Will need to do a shop there tomorrow.
Biscuits and chicken are main things.
M
Cutting Ivy
The Ivy on the fence on Lorna and James side is getting too big, and risks bringing the whole fence down. Dont mind so much if it falls their way, of course.
Filling up the black bin rather quickly.
M
Keith on holidays?
No transport to OL today.
But I am very tired, so blessing in disguise.
M
Monday, April 20, 2026
NWB eBay issues
I found I could not pay by Nat West, when buying from ebay.
The lady in NW insisted I must have got out of eBay and logged into Nat West. I insusted I did not log into Nat West. This was not helpful for the customer.
I explained how I could not find the original device, and I did need to delete its existence off the Nat West systems. This at least opened up a conversation, which surprised me.
You can only pay this way from a single designated machine. You cannot set up two such machines. You can create a new machine, and this will erase all knowledge of old machines.
So my solution has to be to create a new machine, and that is it. This has to be a pretty secure process, and wont be instant, as otherwise it could itself be misused.
Anyway, I now have a way forward, even if I lost my temper with this stupid person.
M
Apple machine
Continuing saga.
When found as a problem, it was difficult if not impossible to see any power getting to the machine. Hence it was thought to be a power cable type issue. That is either the cable itself or the effective plugs at either end. The cable and the plug end could be easily tested, and were fine, so suspicion was on the other end just in the aple machine.
We did not get ti test this the first saturday.
However on the second saturday, progress was made on removing the under plate, and hence to see some of the moving parts etc. To remove the base plate was just a very gentle lifting operation with a very fine blade. No force at all. This allowed one to see that the fan started after a short warnm up period. The cable had nothing wrong with it.
This basically took up the second saturday session, with aim to come back next month.
When I got home I installed in garage, and switched on, and was surprised to see the machine starting up, and then performing plenty of normal stuff. There was no internet connection visible.
It was left running, but it decided to close down the power, and this whole episode has not been successfully repeated.
However it shows a heart beat, sending power to peripherals, ie bespoke input /output devices, lasting say seconds. All the power is coming from the processor.
So Just need to know how to control this from the various buttons on the processor casing. There must be some combinations to do things like 'restart'.
Otherwise snother trip to the church will be necessary.
M
Catheter bags
Surgery were hppeleess over ordering new bags. I went down to Paydens, who had a record of the last ( and first) supply of catheters. They hand wrote out the details, which I then put on a perscription request, and popped into the inbox. Hope this works.
Those bits I could not read, I just copied as best I could.
I now realise I was originally given some night bags. Never thought of using them.
M
Surgery Internet
Clearly they were having software problems with Anima. They call it the internet, which is stupid and misleading.
M
chubb
Lunch time
Basically told Jonathon to stop banging outside the kitchen during lunch time. He basically said yes.
He has no concept of what a good place is for doing noisy work. Basically where you can see lots of sky.
M
car sorn
Formerly took the car off the road today.
Relatively simple on line procedure.
M
Saturday, April 18, 2026
Gardening
I have been doing lots of weed cleaning in a quick fashion. Compost piles have been growing fast, as well as black bin.
Basically, I try to give an advantage to some of my preferred plants.
M
Repair Shop.
I took my latest iMac to the repair shop, down near the church. First they thought it was the power input that was faulty, but that was not right, and today they showed that this was not correct. They will investigate further next time.
Back home I got it up and running, though not connected to the internet, as it was not attached to peripherals. Later this sort of failed, but still showed signs of life.
I guess there are some ways of setting things up, using the buttons. I cannot seem to use the keyboard. I need to do a sort of reset.
M
Pages party
This has been no problem so far and there is only just over an hour to go.
Thank you Pages.
M
Small composter
I must remember to use the small green plastic bin. At the moment it mostly gets dry twigs, and it needs more of a damp mixture.
M
Dunnock
One seems to be owning a front garden territory. I done remember one ever being there before.
M
Thursday, April 16, 2026
Red top
Fives players liked my paramo top. This is maybe after being in the draw for thirty years. I like it as well.
M
ear buds
Bus stop
I think it is much nicer walking to just beyond the surgery, rather than going to Tesco's, when going to Tonbridge. Might be slightly longer, but much less strenuous and more things to see.
M
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
catheter bags
On my penultimate bag from my original stock. Will need to reorder these via Creed.
M
Rodney
Why cannot I remember this, as source for fives players name.
M
muisli
Nat West
Now in the bank queue for help
Not a good session. The lady clearly did not undetstand how their app was being used by ebay, which caused me to go for help. Her tgreats were pathetic.
She did eventually accept that I had not myself accessed their app directly.
The main point I had not realised is that you cannot have two phones able to pay out of your account. Setting up a new one automatically deletes the previous one.
Not sure where this would be spelled out.
M
Tuesday, April 14, 2026
Trump
He really has blown it. He is trying to do too much, and will get nothing done. You cannot try and impose tarrifs and fight a major war at the same time. In a war you need the majority of countries backing you completely, not while being in difficult negotiations.with you.
He is becoming a laughing stock, which is not a good idea in a war.
On the other hand the US forces have been impressive, both in detailed information gathering, and in air borne delivery.
M
three cornered leek
A real pest, but the clusters are much easier to pull up. So best to be patient, stopping seeding, but not budding.
They don't like shade so help taller plants to smother them a bit.
M
garden
Did a good chunk of clearing growth. Jolly hard work, and not much to be seen for all the work. However it helps some of the less strong plants to survive.
M
Lidl shop
Fab bus jouneys. No waiting at all. Route turning right after zebra is much more attractive and free of people. Noted buses are from multiple companies.
Lydl fine, but I am out of practice in finding things. Cheese section not up to standard, but better than tescos.
No thick peel marmelade, though advertised.
Salmon is salmon. Not sure how to cook.
Mibile app worked, no problem. I get the list on line.
M
Monday, April 13, 2026
Female blackbird collecting nesting material by steps.
M
laptop problems
Not sure what was going on. Could not restart.
Unplugged as much as I could, and it did start. Investigating.
M
House sparrow
There have always been some around the neighbourhood, particularly top of Boyne Park and far end of Somerville gardens, but not in our front garden. Together with a Hedge Sparrow and 4 goldfinch. The latter obviously liked one of our plants seeds. Not sure which.
M
Nasty bug.
Tricia now recovering from nasty bug. Probably from Jono, who came on Monday for Creed session.
M
Site.
The front walls are nearly finished, as they only have to touch the top floor, and they are only a couple of layers away..
Bricks uniform colour, and perfectly acceptable.
M
pergola ?
J and S have new feature, right in the centre, half way along central thoroughfare.
Ticket office? Hide the street lamp?
Their success with climers is limited, so don't bother to check this space.
M
payment problem
I have worked out the nat west problem with payment for my ebay battery purchase. It wanted me to use the passcode for the poco machine, which is long enough.
Now I cannot get my toshiba to start proprly. What is happening?
M
Sunday, April 12, 2026
Sue around again
Saturday, April 11, 2026
Huawei watch
The watch has finally corrected the move to summer time.
The problem was making the right connections.
I did not leave the strap with the laptop for long enough. It probably has set times when it tries to make the connections, and cannot be hurried along.
I probably should have physically connected the watch to laptop, and this can only help in making the connection.
Anyway worries are over until the next time change.
M
pm
I think the key here is to realise that it all is managed by the watch, listening out for time stamped signals sent out by other devices nearby. Its presence may not be even noticed. It may work with all sorts of gadgets, such as communication equipment, periferals, clocks, other watches etc.
ag4
This is probably the smallest battery. It is used in the clock present from the guys in the states when I retired from Unilever.
I hate the huge variety of packages that ebay offer. It is very difficult to make up ones mind about which is best. The price range just shows how bad it is.
M
Bitwarden
It wants to update something. But cannot msnage it. All looks a bit unsafe.
I will wait
M
NatWest codes
In trying to pay ebay for a battery, I got into paying with nat west. Should have been easy, but they took me a long way round. Firstly getting me to their site by getting me to scan some image. Which scanner? My examples did not work. Eventually found one that did, and indeed this got me into a nat west login screen. Then asked for various characters in things I should know. Fine, except the very last asked for the 17th character. There is no code this long!! Abandoned, and will visit the bank on monday.
M
Bus shelter
A strange framework has appeared next door, at the top of the garden stairs up the middle of the back garden. Presumably for climbers.
It will do nothing to improve the garden, and make it even more difficult to make a good layout.
It is truely a folly.
M
swollen glands
We both have them this morning. Presumably Jono is carrier.
Taking it easy today, with any shopping delayed to tomorrow.
Might even have a wood fire in play room.
M
Friday, April 10, 2026
Sue?
I have not seen Sue for a while. Her car is in the drive. Jonathon is around but mostly indoors.
Gone abroad?
M
stroppy receptionist
When trying to get statin pills for Trisha, she insisted that I already had enough pills. There was little proof of this, in that she does not know what the chemists have done.
In this case the prescription had been broken into three parts, and only two had been collected in an attempt to avoid a shortage. The third was actually still at the chemist.
There had been a shortage at the chemist, with only one pack rather than two. This pack was to be used as general emergency, and they could only offer 8 tablets on day one. On day two they could offer the remaining 24. And the second box was to come later. This second box was actually still at the chemist, but had been forgotten by me, in all the rush and confusion.
The insistance that 'I' had the pills was not helpful. She should have deduced that either the chemist or I had the remaining pills.
M
Thursday, April 09, 2026
urine history
If I have a dodgy urine pipe, then one should ask the question about what other things it might be responsible for.
. The pain, which led to tamulosin
. The night difficulty to pee completely sometimes, during the cycle of having the cancer injections. I would drink a lot of water to stimulate the biggest pee.
. The bed wetting period just before entering Pembury
There may have been other symptoms, I have not remembered or considered.
M
keyboard
To get the keyboard to work on a small tablet, you should use it in a vertical position. Otherwise you will be missing the keyboard.
M
spider
I caught in the top bathroom a very large spider and chucked it outside the kitchen door.
I am a hero, of course.
I could see it running away.
M
hair wash and shower
Tried to wash my hair yesterday in the shower. It basically failed to work.
On thinking about it, I think the water pressure must have been a problem. Next time I should check the downstairs loo, as this is often a good measure of what is happening.
The water is ok from the roof tank, but not from the mains.
Everything seemed fine in the shower unit itself. Just little more than a dribble.
M
statins
Tricia's statins should be ready for collection tomorrow. Only time will tell.
Anyway when we are there to see Creed, we can check the progress, both in the practice and the pharmacy.
M
lots of buses
Went to paydens this morning and am catching a bus to tonbridge now. There seem to be masses that I have not seen at tescos. Are they skipping the centre of town? They tend to be longer distance, and maybe dint stip so often.
Anyway shows a time for the castle.
M
Wednesday, April 08, 2026
tesco survey
Just too complicsted to complete without errors. Abandoned. I hope they can see the aborted drafts. Not sure if they should publish anything, but the info could be availble for them, but not others.
M
changed bags
Catheter bag change done smoothly.
Still a bit uncomfortable.
M
Jonathon back.
No real info, other than he still looks stiff in his movements. Did not spot Sue.
Looked as if he drove.
The building works will have advanced a lot since he left. Is very good from our view, but must be a shock for him.
M
version problems
The rate of change with all suppliers is making it difficult to operate efficiently. There are just too many problems and issues with things, particularly security changes.
I thing I should move somethings onto the ipad, as the most stable and complete solution.
This can be extended to apple in general with some confidence.
M
M
gardening
Did quite a bit of work in front garden, particularly outside the study.
Not sure if earth has recovered from whatever problem the ground had.
A lot more work needed.
M
lydl success
All went pretty well. Bus from stop nearest the crossroad going. Only a small wait both ends.
Lydl fine.
Return trip took me to monson road.
M
Monday, April 06, 2026
stove fired up
Yesterday had a fire in the play room. Fire worked perfectly.
Will need more wood.
Going to be hOt this week apparently.
M
garden warbler
Sunday, April 05, 2026
phone earphones
I have ordered a set of earplugs which talk to a phone, so that I can take calls at anytime without having to find and extrcate it.
Nice possibility. The funny thing is that they are rediculously cheap.
Went to amazon, but they just try to rook you.
M
trial lydl run
Bit of a disaster in the everything was shut. However I did work out walking route, which is basicall straight down the lane across, with a final right turn up to carpark. Then along the path at the back and then first left to the round about.
Am trying the sunday buses back into tiwn, which seem to be at least one per hour, but not quitesure of the route.
Does not say anything aboutbeung dependent on shops, so fingers crossed
M
Saturday, April 04, 2026
Lydl
I think I will try to do some shopping at Lydl tomorrow. Should not be too far going there downhill.across the common
Not sure about return journey. Bus?
Friday, April 03, 2026
apple entries.
I think I put in some entries today on the ipad, which I cannot yet see here.
Probably waitingg for me to do something
Need to check
M
fence in corner
A bit messed around by next door cutting off some ivy. Not too worried, but they should have been more careful to work out where things came from and where they go.
The growth will have started with me, gone over to Jonathon, and the back to dentist and myself.
Any anyway, they will have some dead stuff facing them from my side now. Hope they dint try to do snything to it.
Probably Ucranians, rather than jonathon.
M
Green Woodpecker
One heard calling somewhere near home. No idea whether male or female. I rather assume only a call, and both sexes are alike, rather than a song.
Dont know if they drum either.
M
Still slightly increased discomfort
Things have settled down a bit after traumatic Tuesday. Pain just slightly worse than normal, but hardly surprising given the battering I had getting the catheter in place. 8 on the pain score is my reasonable valuation.
I continue to improve the setup, with subtle methods of holding bits in place during the day.
The hospital bags are cheap and nasty, and I quickly discarded them.
I am fine walking into town, but am being more careful and probably smoothly slow.
M
Thursday, April 02, 2026
Red Volvo back in road
Maybe Jonathon and Sue will be back soon. I thought they might have been cycling in France, but now seems less likely.
M
tiling on main building
They have started some tiling on the main building. This is above a dormer window. It is directly behind the end of tesco's as seen from the kitchen.
It is pretty exposed, and they are carefully motaring it in place .
Watch this space.
M
just got my tamulosin
This was a near thing, given Easter closures of practices and chemists.
The practice had everything monday morning, but nothing had been done until I arrived today ( thursday). Chemist could do nothing, but they did know that they had a stock of the tablets.
Anyway with prompt, the practice quickly produced a signed perscription for any chemist, and sent me off. Downstairs they prioritised me because I said I would wait, and I had the package within about ten minutes.
Wow. It can move when it wants to. My worries were over. But if it had been delayed till friday, it might have been a mess. Normal service would have been next Tuesday.
I suppose I would normally have checked on Tuesday and Wednesday, but this time they were occupied and busy days, and it was not unreasonable to think the prescription would have got to the chemist by thursday morning, or at least authorised.
Probably easter is the worst time of year. Only christmas day on thursday would be equivalent, and that is only once in say six years.
M
Wednesday, April 01, 2026
long chat about aunty j
earphones
If I am on buses more often, then perhaps I should get some wireless earphones for my mobile phone.
M
Parents should not expect anything. full stop.
It is very to expect some thanks in kind, from children. Absolutely not. One should expect them to give this directly to the grand children.
So you, the grand parents already received your reward from your parents beforehand.
Tough luck if you did not. But it is bad practice to demand from your grown up children.
This requires a serious imagination of what the time dimension really is.
Wow.
M
take mobile everywhere
Looks as if K and J will want me to take my mobile with me everywhere.
Bit of a pain, but understandable.
Anorak to the rescue. Hot weather will be challenge.
M
Tesco clubcard
I had to scrap the original one, as expected, and am successfully using the new one. Saved a couple of quid already.
They are really pushing the loyalty angle at the moment. Things must be tough in the smaller shops.
M
clearing out questionable apps
With the advent of AI, apps have been having a difficult time of it, and this has lead to some poor behaviour.
I have done a bit of a clear out, and no doubt this will continue. Some of these things are difficult to get rid of. It is essential to get them listed and not started. This normally allows a simple file delete.
Martin
this blog
Is helping me practice remembering important events and targets.
It forces me to build up the total context, and this reinforces all the individual bits.
M
tamsulosin
Must see if paydens have the prescription ready for collection. try thursday. OK till next monday.
M
repairshop man
The guy that I dealt with at the church, said hello to me from his bike when I got off the bus from pembury. Fun to be recognised.
M
K tested out phone contact
Who knows what mobile phone number she had, or where it came from. I gave her the POCO number, and we tested it out in a lot of situations, successfully.
I did not need any alterations, and has probably always worked.
I think some of the issues come from hazel dean, who had a system of changing the identity of the caller calling out of the building. So replies would have to be intercepted to be used.
I am sure this is a free welsh sim card, and should be relatively reliable, to comercial pressures. Most of my commercial sims have expired, as companies did not like my low rate of payments.
M
Catheter straps
I had a potential breakthrough idea of using a support strap to hold near the bag end of the hose. This stops a certain number of wiggles of the pipe and resulting pain.
At least worth a try
M
Volvo in street
Maybe Sue or Jonathon expected back. Watch this space.
Could be more roof work, of course.
M
hot water bottle
Found, under my bed. Mislaid quite a bit ago, and the trail had gone totally cold.
Found while looking for my glasses. One pair found one still missing. At 5 pounds for three I am not over worried.
M
phone tests
Checked comms to katherines phone. Everything worked fine. Phone just needs to be on, not acitve.
M
