Thursday 7th November 2019

Maori: Rāpare 7th Whiringa 2019

01:30hrs: I woke up, wishing I could recall some more of the dream I’d had. The best bits I remembered, was it all took place underground, in caves, some big some very small, and I was being chased through them. I think in amongst my many perusers chasing after me, was David Nixon and Bruce Forsyth, coffins and pianos were scattered in the more extensive caves. But it may have got mixed up with an earlier dream about me being a sort of mole trying to get up to the surface, but not being able to. Cause it was very confusing. I was confused about the dream. Hey-ho! Not very interesting but there you go.

Anyroad, I stirred into imitation life, and was soon out of the £300, second-hand, near-dilapidated, gungy-beige coloured, c1968, sometimes working recliner. The one that my Xyrophobia-suffering, crooked Brother-in-Law Pete damaged, while he was flat-robbing, when I was in the Stroke Ward, and he fitted new CCTC cameras and searched for my valuables, which he found and took, (I still haven’t got them back yet six-months later!) But, his contrition makes him keep promising to return them. Well, what’s left of them and hasn’t already been deposited in his bank account.

As I started to move, I noticed how distorted positions my body was in. Contorted in a way that I could not get the arms and legs in if I was foolish enough to try. It was close to agony getting my onerously flabby body and limbs free enough for me stand up. I gave thought to what could have been in the dream, to make my get like this, but I soon gave up worrying about it, as Anne Gyna and Arthur Itis started showing their displeasure at the movement needed to rise up, four-pronged walking stick assisted from the recliner onto my feet. Then I noticed the state of my left arm. Caused possibly, by it being around my back and sat on when I first awoke?

There were no demands being made for any Porcelain Throne or wee-weeing activity! That was a worry, really. After months of flowing wee-wees, and on waking up Throne needs, today neither? I hobbled through to the kitchen and got the kettle on, moved the hand-washing onto the airers to encourage them to dry, they were still almost wet.

The new Magnesium tablets, I thought it would be best taken on two halves, they were so gigantic in size.

The new pill-cutter was brought out to be used for the first time. As you can see by the photographs on the left here, it was not exactly a resounding success. I’ll say! Hehe!

I think it might cope better with flat tablets as opposed to rounded ones, like what the Magnesium bricks are. Tsk!

By the time I’d given up, after ending with a rather masticated tablet and even more crumbled bits of medication than actual pill all over the place, I decided another pill-splitter will have to be bought. Then I had to make another brew to replace the one that had gone cold. Not a problem for me, with the gigundous thirst I currently have on me. I’ve been this way for a couple of days since the catching the cold. Come think of it, with the sore throat, mouth ulcers and the tickly-cough, that might be why I’m not eating, and dishing food for the last two days? Or not. But the lack of wee-weeing concerns, under the circumstance, I’d have more wee-wees would need to be taken, else, where is all the tea going? Cause it sure ain’t coming out of Little Inchy… well only in dribs and drabs, at least I hope it will in consummation, none has yet today!

That reminds me, I’ll have a swig of the linctus now.

03:25hrs, I was sure I heard an alarm of some sort, and had a wander around in search of the source, which made me  more aware of the pesky, most nettlesome, infernal humming or droning noise that is all around the building for the flat 24/7! Found nowt. Grrr!

I took this rather sad and poor, certainly not one of my bestest photographs, of the view out of the unwanted, light & view-blocking, thick-framed new kitchen windows, the ones with the unreachable to clean segments of glass.

I made another brew of tea (fancy that!) and used the different milk I bought yesterday, the organic one. Tasted okay.

At last, I made a start on updating the blog, must get it done ASAP if I am to get out today. Because there are many graphics that I need making and advance templates.

The sites on the web kept on crashing. I turned everything off, then back on, but didn’t take the power off, and rebooted. Moments later, they crashed again, not all together, but separately, within a minute of each other. WordHippo, Google, WordPress, and so on. I engaged ‘Panic-Defcon-1-Mode’, and felt my world had come to an end! Not angry oddly enough, just heartbreakingly sad!

Firefox asked me which tabs were in use when it went down, I told them via the message box, and hopefully rebooted, or recovering the crashed sites. But it kept repeating the process, and I had to stop and try calmly to see what I could try next.

Then the computer became unresponsive, and would not let me close or open anything, the light on the mouse was not showing. Even the Window start button would not let me close anything down safely. So, I opened the mouse, cleaned it, and put new batteries in. Somehow managing not to lose-it entirely as I did so.

Without my computer working, life is not worth living.

Got it back on, turned everything off, rebooted and reset the internet, with a prayer. But Beelzebub and the Mysteries of my beloved Woodthorpe Court. That lie somewhere between the twilight zone and a wormhole slipping through a tear in the fabric of space & the universal continuum, illusion, delusion, & hallucination, decided that this would not work, and it didn’t!

Panic had now set-in! I was near the end of my tether, at my wit’s end, in a tizzy. Corybantic and almost foaming at the mouth with frustration!

Then, after rebooting yet again, I went into my Norton and did a defrag. Nothing had changed! One more close-down and reset, then back into Norton. Which this time lit up attention needed button, which I clicked on, and it went through a few jobs and reported that it had saved so much memory, and the computer is now tuned-up. With trepidation, I started the network, which worked and then the Internet again, and opened WordPress – I could have cried for joy, as things were now working once more! I might even have shed a few tears of joy, actually! Don’t laugh! Oh, go on then!

So late in the day, but I got on with the updating of the Wednesday diary. But I was so relieved! The fact that it was gone 08:00hrs by the time I got it completed didn’t matter to me, exhilaration (and amazement) at me getting things working had not expired yet. I got the post sent off at long last!

Around 08:15hrs, I was just sitting letting the previous hours of torment drift from my worry-box, and taking pride in getting through the mayhem, when I heard a sound similar the earlier one that I couldn’t account for, it was so faint. I got the hearing aids in, lest it starts again while I’m looking for the cause.

AS I was walking the corridor, I heard the Intercom buzzing. Was it the INR nurse, I pressed the accept button, and no view came up of the outer foyer area as usually does. No pins worked at all? That’s three, possibly four times this has happened up to now. If it does not come good later, I’ll nip and mention it later, to the Obergruppenfúreress Wardens.

I went to make another mug of tea. (This thirst is just not abating at all?) While waiting for the kettle to boil, I moved the handwashing around on the airers, then spotted some marks on the upper cabinet wood near the handle. So I got the Fairy cleaner, sprayed the spots of whatever it was, and trapped a finger in the handle, ridding the wood of the dirt. But it was nothing for a klutzy, blunderous, lubberly, clumsy, uncoordinated, doddering, disaster-welcoming, accident-prone, unlucky, catastrophal geriatric like me. Haha!

About 0945hrs, The Intercom buzzed again. Same thing, no picture, no buttons working. I hope it wasn’t the food delivery or the nurse if it was anyone that is. Cause the screen told me no missed calls. I decided to pop down to the Obersturmführer and Catwalk Model Warden Julie, and or Riechsführeress and Pole Dancer Warden Deana, to let them know. As I got the three-wheeler with the nibbles in it, Josie came to me and said she was having the same problem with her intercom. I said I’m going down to mention it, I’ll let you know what transpires when I get back.

When I got in the lift, a man and woman coming down from a higher floor, said they too had got trouble with their intercom and were going to complain, not mention it. A complaint is not warranted with someone who has no power over what is happening! (I just thought of that as I was typing. I should get a mention in the Times, dictionary or something for that quote) Hahaha! Makes me sound almost educated!

As I was walking to the link-passage door, a Nottingham City Homes gentleman was on his I-pod, I-pad, mobile or whatever it was he was using. And I mentioned the situation to him. He thought they were testing or updating the system. Well, it’s never worked properly since installation, and 80% of the tenants (the older ones, like wot I am) with hearing aids can’t hear the buzzer. I asked, Would it come through if someone actually called. It was presumed so! I pressed on the Winwood Foyer and called at the Warden’s Holding cell and Interrogation Office. I mentioned the intercom, the answer was low-key, matter-of-factedly answered. Not sure how long it will be off-line. I handed some nibbles around and made my way back to the intercom-less flat. (Or maybe not, no one knows if it will work if pressed by a proper caller, or how long the disruption will last or seem bothered in the slightest) Hey-ho! I’m too happy at the computer working again, to get all hot and bothered over the intercom. I called at Josie’s and told her the non-news I had gathered about the intercom. 1) They are upgrading the system. 2) They are backing up the system. 3) They are servicing the system. 4) It will take a few hours. 5) We’ve no idea how long it will take. 6) If anyone calls, it should work, but we’re not sure. She did laugh! ♥

I finally got around to doing the graphics to let me carry on with the blogging. But it’s going to be a long job, so I had a change of heart, and started on this blog instead.

Hello, it’s looking dark early out there. Ah, it’s raining again.

Crikey, its15:30-hrs already! I got the kettle on again and tried the intercom, but it is still not working? Got on the computer to try and do some graphics.

But first, I got the mushroom and turnip sliced and in the pan, with some vinegar and light Soy sauce added to the water.

Then, finally, at last, I felt I needed a wee-wee! First if the day, hurrah! I hastened to the wet room, almost full of joy at getting rid of at least some of the fluid that must still stewing-away inside my ever-more bulbous stomach! Well, I’ve never wee-wee’d less, or so painfully in my memory! A new classification needed here. It was a DAPAO: Drip-Pain-And-Pain-All-Over job! I doubt it would have filled an eggcup! Tsk! Ah, well, it’s a start of sorts. I fear that things might well prove even more painful if it ever begins to flow again. In fact, Double Tsk!

I really must start on the graphics now. But, the sudden fatigue ruined my plans. I started coughing, and the sore throat got worse, and I decided I’ll have to do the template in the morning. I hate leaving things until the last minute, but Teddy Tiredness won the day!

I went to the kitchen and got the meal started, real-spare-ribs in the oven, and the mushrooms and turnip cooking in the saucepan. Then I took some pictures of the early evening sky.

Then got the handwashing done, wrung, and hung! For some reason, the hot water was not as hot as it should have been, but sufficiently so to do the washing. So, just in case the water heater was going on the blink, I filled some saucepans with water and got them on the stove on a low light, so as to have hot water for the pot-washing later. Did you notice that? Sometimes despite the weariness, the brain gets-it-together! I wish the body could do the same! Hahaha!  The pork ribs in sauce in the oven had some Sharwood’s Korean BBQ sauce was poured over it.

I noticed the sky was reddening a bit, so I took some more shots to compare with those taken fifteen minutes earlier.

Red sky at night, shepherds delight. This saying made me thing in the morning when I was updating this blog, and I had a look at some other weather proverbs;

• Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.
• Red sky at night, shepherds delight. Red sky in the morning, shepherds warning.
• When rain comes before the wind, halyards, sheets and braces mind, but when wind comes before rain, soon you may make sail again.
• When dew is on the grass, no rain will come to pass.
• When halo rings Moon or Sun, rain’s approaching on the run.
• When the wind is out of the East, tis never good for man nor beast.
• Cows lie down when it’s about to rain.
• Pine cones open when good weather is on the way.
• If the goose honks high, fair weather – If the goose honks low, foul weather.
• When clouds appear like rocks and towers, the Earth’s refreshed, with frequent showers.

The majority of the proverbs regarding the weather, seem to have grown into rhymes.

I got diverted there, sorry.

After yesterdays disastrous vegetarian ‘Ribz’ nosh was thrown away, I felt some doubt when I served up tonight’s proper spare rib in sauce meal. It did not look well presented, I’d put far too much sauce on the ribs, the garden peas and turnip was slightly overcooked, the mushrooms undercooked, and the tomatoes, being out-of-season were a little bitter tasting, but this was expected. Before we joined the Common Market as it was known then, I always looked forward to the arrival of new seasons Guernsey and Jersey tomatoes with great relish. We don’t even see them on the market nowadays! Boo!

In the final analysis, although and despite it looking a mess, I gave it a Flavour-Rating of 7/10. The only down-side apart from the poorly cooked vegetables was the absolute sticky-mess I made of my fingers, chest, belly and mouth, eating the ribs. But I licked the fingers dry, leaving an adhesive coating on them and my tongue, before going to wash the pots and me. Hehe!

I completed the pot washing, and moved, jiggled the drying clothes about a bit. Then took a much needed, but pathetic attempt at a wee-wee. A URPD (Ultra-Resistant-Painful-Dripping) mode. (Why I bothered, I’d get rid of more liquid when shaking Inchy after the event usually! Humph!) But things ain’t usual at the moment. I must get to see the doctor about this before the retained fluid causes my bladder to blow-up!

Despite, or perhaps because of, the day’s anxieties, problems, trials and tribulations, I found it almost impossible to get off to sleep. I was mentally worn-out, wearied and tired enough surely? The ups & downs, and my mind’s thought-blasts kept the brain far too occupied. I don’t know when it was I eventually nodded off but can remember the news coming on the TV, at 23:00hrs! My usual head-down time is around 16:00 > 17:00hrs. So, I’d been up for twenty-three hours of frustrating hassle.

And, the intercom is still not working. Not that this will bother anyone other than the affected uninformed of the situation Nottingham City Homes tenants!

Evenin’ all!