Sun, Sky and NHS

The sun was up, the sky was blue, an ideal time to walk round the corner and have the first off three visits to the NHS.  Get them in now folks before Boris sells the NHS off it to his donors.  Today was a blood test.  This meant being first in the queue of old men at ten this morning to have the delightful, efficient nurse struggle to get blood out of this stone.  She tried the left arm unsuccessfully leaving me with the conclusion that I was dead.  She smiled gently and thrust the needle willingly into the other arm in a fashion that disproved my conclusion.  Blood flowed!  

 

 

After this I wandered round Sainsburys seeking meat, some fool had forgotten to raid the freezer last night.  Thus I encountered several people of my acquaintance, including two who could not avoid me no matter how they tried, and headed home rejoicing.  Those two did not.  Thus encouraged I once again took my weary body, very weary this past week, across the park.  

There is something very enlightening and enjoyable found in crossing even a small area of green, especially when the sun is up, the sky blue, the air filled with light, and dogs taking their owners for walks wish to meet you.  It was indeed chilly however, when I first left the house the air that we breathe out was like a steam engine, but within an hour it had warmed up to freezing.  

And Winter has not started yet!

I ended up in Tesco for the things not available in Sainsburys.  They were not available in Tesco either.  However, I managed to spend money and hobble back home, clamber up the stairs for the second time, grateful I need not do this again today.

 

Ding Dong! Ding Dong!

'Hermes' at the door.  Packet collected for next door, I indicated the way around the back to Number 2 with a second.  Back up the stairs a third time after all.

It was as I laid the large red, plastic bag down I noticed the name.  

It was incorrect.  

This packet was for Number 2, not Number 5.  How stupid of me not to check the name.  Anyway, off I go, downstairs, round the back, knock on the door, and am glad that he indoors was as dumb as myself.  He never looked at the name either. His wife also spends too much online.  

Upstairs for the fourth time!  How happy I am!  My routine shattered I have lingered all day after this trying to catch up with things I keep forgetting to catch up with.

I anticipate tomorrow with great pleasure...

 

The Labour of Hermes

 

 Sky News

 

Today Keir Starmer delivered his first speech to the Labour Party conference.  I didn't bother to notice it. I expected little and it appears that is what we have been offered.  He did not say anything revolutionary, offering some leadership, or suggestions to take the nation out of the mess into which it has sunk.  My reading of the far from enthusiastic responses to his speech indicates no changes from Labour regarding opposing the Tories.  The nation will continue under this inept government for some time, another, possibly 'snap' election is possible soon, and after that Boris victory the Tories will reign supreme for some time because Labour have failed to oppose him or offer solutions.

What a mess.

What should he have said?

Had Keir made clear Labour would return to the EU, nationalise the main society supports, the buses, railways, NHS, gas, electric and water, for a start, he would have found a strong support from millions fed up with private profit while their fares and costs soar under any excuse that fits.  This however, is not something he would ever contemplate.  I understand there were no references to Clement Attlee in his speech.

Clearly supported by Lord Mandleson of disrepute, he instead just wishes to continue as a 'Red Tory,' teaching the youth to learn 'how to live with it,' and 'make the best of it.'  Super!  Nothing planned to change the way things work or find a better way for the future?  Get used to Boris, he will be around for ever if Keir remains in charge of Labour.

 

It's a Shopping Life

This online-shopping is a good thing innit?

What with the trouble last year with 'Hermes' and deliveries I am always a bit wary when ordering online.  However, all delivery companies have expanded greatly, even 'Hermes' has improved the system and enabled decent tracking of the goods, plus asking for report on the delivery.

Today I was informed my 'DPD' driver, name given, would deliver between 9:21 & 10:21.  So I sat back happy about this, as usually they arrive around lunchtime.  In fact he was a couple of minutes early and sped on his way, a cheerful hard working driver.  He must have been up before the postmen this morning!  Yesterday 'Hermes' arrived, a couple using their car rather than a van, a cheery local working class type.  Friendly, quick and within the time given.  A vast improvement for 'hermes.'   

 

 

With the vast amount of money received at Xmas I bought myself a (very) cheap, (very) used little camera to shove into my pocket.  Naturally bits are missing, scruff marks abound but the Battery charger works and so does the camera, in spite of marks on the lens!  The missing bit is the connection to the laptop which is required when downloading pictures.  I have ordered a (very) cheap cable from an online shop, but there is another problem.  The 'Canon' site offers downloads for these old cameras and I brought down the user manual easily enough, but when I try for anything else it demands the serial number.  Easy-peasy, they are always on the bottom.  However, when I looked it was not on the bottom!  OO er missus!  What is a going on here?  The condition of the camera indicates a bumbling user, Boris himself perhaps, and care has not been taken.  However the missing number could have been caused by 'wear and tear' or indeed scratched off for devious reasons.  The place I bought it from is a reasonable company however, not a back street job.     

I am now wondering if the cable will connect or if I will still require software to get a connection.  There is however, a possiblity that the Windows help have a solution, this may work. If not, the only solution will be to remove the SD Card and put it into the other camera, download, and return the cards to their respective homes each time I use the thing.  

Buying 'second-hand,' sorry, 'Used,' is a great way to shop if you are happy with older stuff rather than the latest gadget, however there are always pitfalls and bits missing.  

The camera looks like it will to do the job, even if not as good as the Lumix, ideal   for carrying in the pocket.  Mind you it is heavier than it looks.  Picture quality appears OK so far, one day I will get out and look around to see what it can do.

 

 

There is however, normal life ahead!  Next week charity shops will open again so I can go shopping without a debit card.  So many items appear to have shrunk hanging up in the cupboard, so items, like jackets, must be inspected.

A hundred and one smaller items have either gone missing or are now required and a perusal of these shops, all eight of them here, is a must!  I suppose I ought to wait a further week or so, the number of bags being donated, including a large black one of mine, will have to be sorted first.  The days of lockdown have given many time to sort out the cupboards.  I canny wait to see the bargains awaiting me.

 

The Sea! The Sea! I Wish I Saw the Sea!

 

"Oh to go down to the sea again

          To the lonely sea and the sky."

Well I got as far as the front where I removed some weeds and cleared up a wee bit.  That and aches makes up my day.  I did this job because I thought 'Hermes' were delivering and I wished to be at the door to ensure he did not run away again.  Naturally it is tomorrow he is coming...

At least I was outside for a while.

How I miss the beach at Bournemouth!

There are other small coves around where it is possible to enjoy the sea, especially when few are around.  My dream home would have the right sea view in front of me and not far behind a railway, preferably a 'Heritage' railway, running steam every so often.  The view is somewhat different at the moment.  

One day when I am rich...

A stolen picture, taken from 'Edinburgh Past & Present' on facebook.  I even forget the lassies name, sorry.  She took this while landing at Edinburgh Airport (still called 'Turnhouse' by me!).  This is the area where I spent my first two years and then entered the school almost hidden high on the top left of the picture.  The view from the house we moved to looked over the Forth towards Fife, a super view, and on that page people often post pictures of sunsets and dawns to make me jealous.  I see trees and a park...  

This could be a worse view of course.  When I came here I was offered a basement in Dovercourt with a car park behind.  The view, and the mould on the wall, now attended to, was not to my liking, so here I reside.  Dovercourt is by Harwich which is a famous Submarine base, this was attractive but the flat was not.  The wee town itself was a bit rundown in spite of the tourist possibilities.  Not that I saw any submarines there now.  Sometimes I wish I had tried to 'go to sea' as so many used to in the past.  The idea of a rough crossing may have been what put me off.  Interestingly, my father was living just up from Granton Harbour having gone to the school just above the dock, yet he joined the army in 1925 when he could get no work.  I often wonder if he had tried for a seaman's job or if the waves put him off also?  The ships he saw as he grew up and paddled by the beach included the 'Grand Fleet,' or at least part of it based at Rosyth.  These must have impressed him, and he showed me where big guns once stood to defend the harbour, yet maybe a bullying corporal in the army was better than a ship rising and falling in the waves?

Better than most of the jobs I did have.

 

Friday Frippary

I finally got fed up awaiting Hermes collecting the returned goods and took myself off down the road for the long walk to the sub post office where I knew I would get a smile from the lassie there.
Naturally she was not there and I was faced with an overworked individual who I do not know, the regular couple were off it appears, who took the package anyway.  They have a small post office section used for after hours mail, good idea.   I informed the sender who did not care as they probably had the goods written off by now and being Friday were looking at the clock.  I care not, it has gone and I am happy to be rid of it.

The third world war war heard beginning outside tonight, Monday is fireworks night so people have been practising at great expense for days, tonight an artillery barrage occurred not far to the north east, I expect even more tomorrow.  I ought to be reading about the war when these things go off, it gives a decent backing noise but without the screams of course.  I am glad I don't have a pet at times like this.

   
Having spent an enjoyable evening listening to loud 'Canned Heat' and 'Joe Cocker' music, there is no football tonight which is a disgrace, I am no easing my ears with Gesualdo.  Very nice it is too.

I hope you enjoy it also.

Hermes the Moon

I find all this very strange.  They call this the 'Harvest Moon' but for the life of me I have been unable to see any harvesting of any kind going on up there.  I have searched NASA but not even the Chinese have managed to sow seeds as far as I can tell let alone harvest anything.  Can you harvest Green cheese I wonder?  If you could the French would be up there like a flash. 
The name 'Harvest Moon' has been around for four hundred years or more,  the name being recorded in the 1700's suggests that is was widely used for a long time before that.  The brightness of the light, seen under a cloudless sky enabled harvesters to reap the crops late into the night.  They must have rejoiced at such long hours!  Indeed looking out at around three this morning the darkness was rent by the moonlight and it was clearly possible to manage many jobs sufficiently if need be.  Criminals must remain indoors at such times as identification would be enhanced by the moonlight, and stealthy approaches or leaving of a burglary might be difficult if you can be seen.
Early man, attempting sleep on the roof in ancient Sumer must have wondered about the moon and all those other lights flashing across the sky.  Little wonder they invented astrology, though in their day it did not involve a 'Tall dark man calling on Tuesday' of course.  These Magi calculated and understood so much about the sky above recording phenomena of all kinds and their records are still studied today.  The man on the Nippur omnibus must have wondered also when he had time to sleep what was going on above his head.  Ancient peoples however bright they may have been were somewhat rough and indeed cruel towards one another, recalling God calling for the flood because "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."  Slavery, forced work and brutal treatment was common in those days and it is no surprise a flood took them away.  Christian influence has made many things better, even if it did lead to a 'liberal' society gone mad.  It is almost impossible these days to find any place far enough from the light to see the sky as it is.  After midnight most street lights are switched of here to save money and occasionally this gives opportunity, but only if the sky is clear.
All over the country people are desperately attempting to take photos of the moon.  Many are turning out as small blobs of white light, like some of mine, others are well posed and tastefully arranged suitable for framing and sending to newspapers for a moments glory.  I have enough glory so I don't bother.  

'Hermes' strikes again!  Or at least doesn't strike at all.
You recall I had one packet delivered, or not as the case may be.  An email to company brought response, packet delivered next day (Hooray) and a few days later a duplicate, from customer services, followed.  Contact made, promise of collection of duplicate was also made and Hermes awaited.
I still await.
Today I discovered many others in the town also awaiting Hermes.  Packets not delivered, packets delivered but not to the house they ought to have been delivered to, phone calls to numbers that tell you to contact seller, emails not returned, calls not helpful.  
One lady now claims the Hermes man is 'under investigation.'  
Does this mean the police or the company?  This is unclear.  Naturally the women all consider the police are involved.
I am not so sure.  Incompetence, poor pay, zero hours, long hours, foreigners straight of the back of a forty ton lorry, unable to read maps, read English, without licence, insurance or knowledge is more likely than anything else.  Whatever the company will not be paying large sums, has large overheads and poor management of too much work.  All adding up and if one man decides to help himself it will be difficult to sort things out.  The police may have better things to do.
So I await developments.
The town awaits eagerly, packets aplenty lie somewhere, possibly in Essex, possibly in a van struggling through the dark looking for a town he has never heard off while checking the map to find out where he is.  
This could go on for a while yet...

The Messenger Arrives

Yesterday I emailed the company, 'Cotton Traders' regarding the goods I bought and had not yet received.  By late evening I had a very satisfactory answer and by noon today the packet that ought to have arrived via courier on Monday came to my door.  It was clear the 'Hermes' folks were either incompetent or delaying delivery until they had sufficient packages to make it worth their while coming to this area.  Possibly they only deliver on certain days but do not wish to make that clear in case they lose business?
The driver (fresh of the back of a lorry via Calais) was unsure of the area and I noticed he had several packets destined for others in this street.  I was able to guide him in the right direction to aid his quest, the numbers run in an obscure way around here, and while he was friendly and able enough his courier company itself did not inspire me. 
I'm just glad I don't have to send anything back...!
Of course the other goods I ordered several days before from a different company are still not around.  A call today to a man with his volume turned down leaves me with the belief that something will happen in the next few days, or maybe not as the case may be.  What is wrong there is they do not have the goods in stock I suspect, or a warehouse failure possibly.  I suggest the first option.  Another week to pass before i know I reckon.  
This online ordering appeared to be a simple thing a few days ago.  In the past the only problem has been goods arriving and me not being here and having to trek down to the sorting office to collect them.  I understand some of the problems, I have done warehouse work, I have delivered goods for companies and for Royal Mail, I comprehend the problems found in dealing with the public so I am not anti those involved.  I sympathise with many of them but it is preferable to use Royal Mail, the postie always gets through (usually).

Fruit & Veg...

When I rose this morning, awake but still weary, I checked the online tracking for a delivery coming via 'Hermes Parcels.'  This is not a company with a good reputation.  Placed with them on the 6th it reached the 'local depot' wherever that is, just after midnight on the 8th, Saturday.  Later that morning it claimed to have been 'On its way to the courier'a claim which had disappeared by early this morning and replaced by a claim that the package was 'At the customers local depot' at 23:42 on the 8th and again at 23:49 the same date, eight minutes apart.  This morning, at 9:15 the message changed to 'On its way to the courier' once again, though why this arrived at my inbox almost two hours later I know not.
So I awaited developments while suffering the requirement to sleep, the bug appears to have attacked me again.  The door ajar and my ears awaiting the knock while checking the tracking constantly I expected the van to arrive sometime today.  It has not!  So where is it 'Hermes?'  
Hermes as we all now was the 'messenger of the gods' however fewer people are aware he was also the god of thieves, chancers and those of a questionable disposition (Hello Boris Johnson!).   Maybe the company is well named?  Maybe I do them a disservice?  Maybe they require to improve their tracking system so I know what is going on?
Tomorrow I will be at the museum wishing I was at home asleep.  I canny miss this as too many are already off and as you well know Hermes will claim to deliver when I am away from base.  There is another packet (more spending) that has yet to arrive via a differing courier, I think however that this one has not yet been posted, it is not expensive enough!  That may arrive tomorrow when out also....

When young we often went to Cowdenbeath, where mum was born, and stayed in the miners cottage, now long gone, where she grew up.  My aunt Minnie and uncle Sam remained there living on a slight ridge which gave a wonderful view over Central park, the home of Cowdenbeath F.C. at the bottom of the brae and Pit Number 7, the coal mine where Sam and my mothers three brothers worked all their lives.  In 1851 the Beath area contained around a thousand people, while searching for iron ore they found much more coal and soon the 'Chicago of Fife' bloomed, indeed by 1914 some 25,000 people dwelt there most employed directly or indirectly by the pits.
Now miners world wide have a tendency to fly pigeons.  This occurs in Scotland, Australia, the USA and no doubt elsewhere also, however I suspect this has lessened somewhat with the death of mining and the growth of younger miners with other hobbies.  There were no pigeon lofts that I recall around the back of Chapel Street however Sam and many other miners did spend time growing their own vegetables.  I suppose having spent six months on strike during the General Strike of 1926, a General Strike that saw the support of fellow union members fail after a week or so, miners like Sam and my uncles soon understood, if they did not already, that growing their own way a must.  I suspect they always had done so as miners enjoy the time spent outside in the open air, that is why many took up bird fancying, and the miners of that generation were not all of the type to sit in local pubs or miners clubs though obviously many did.  On one occasion uncle Sam offered me a green tomato, and he was adept at growing these, this was a tomato right at the point of turning red and it tasted delicious, one of the best I have ever had.  Long years ago now but this I have never forgotten.  My dad tried similar but his ground was poor, he was jealous of the men in Fife as they grew an abundance of roses, helped by the local milkmen still using horses you understand, and while he eventually succeeded they were never in his mind as good.  He also spent a lot of time in the garden.  The General Strike left Cowdenbeath bereft for six months, quite how they coped for that length of time is still unclear, I suspect the local Co-op gave a lot on tick, but they did and returned after much strife to lower wages. What many died not knowing was that Winston Churchill, the man who fought 'socialism' during the strike also came to hate and despise the mine owners.  Churchill was at heart a liberal and realised the mine owners cared not a jot for their workers and took against them so much he suggested nationalising the mines!  The Conservative Party did not agree.
Cowdenbeath today is much smaller, neater and contains around 15,000 people and almost no knowledge of coal mining remains. There once was a memorial indicating the spot the old wheel stood over while dropping the cage down to the pit.  I wonder if this still exists as looking at Google Maps there appears to be a leisure centre now stands where Pit No 7 once stood.  It would be a shame to have lost all memory of the reason the town exists.

 
I put up a tomato and end up in Cowdenbeath?  Sometimes I wonder...
Here is a couple of cheap peppers, they say these contain more vitamin 'C' than an orange but I wonder.  There is nothing inside them, the taste is not great, and the yellow one I ate earlier did not cure all my ailments, so maybe it is an exaggeration?