Some Can Do Customer Service
i returned back today from some shopping and found the tickets I ordered yesterday from Ipswich Town on the mat. And then after I’d been in for a few minutes, a courier delivered some Coagucheck strips from Roche, that I’d ordered from their web site on Sunday.
I’d also had a good shop, getting the cord trousers, I wanted for the winter, to replace the ones of the same make, I bought over twenty years ago. They’re still the same size.
Kings Cross Square Is Nearly There
I took these pictures recently and it looks like the opening date of the 25th will be met.
Although there is nothing as a certainty in construction, where completion dates are concerned.
Am I Illiterate?
In The Times today there is a section called “The 25 Books You Should Read”
I’ve read just one; Pride and Prejudice. And that was for my GCE O Level!
So am I Illiterate?
Do We Put Our Heating On At The Right Time?
I have been puzzled, why after C died, I started to develop hay fever like symptoms. I blogged about it first here in April 2010, which was before I had the serious stroke.
I have just read this thoughtful article on the BBC entitled “Is It Too Early To Put The Central Heating On?”.
i asked someone who knew us well, and they said that the house was always very cold.
Now both C and myself, were brought up in cold houses, with perhaps hers a little bit warmer than mine because she was down in the valley at East Barnet and I was on top of the hill at Cockfosters.
When I met her, she had the worst chilblains I’ve ever seen. They disappeared fairly soon afterwards and she always put it down to wearing Scholl sandals. She incidentally wore those virtually until the day she died. I suspect there was not one day in the forty years we were together she didn’t put a pair on. She even drove in them. She always said, I should, as they would keep my feet warm.
But could the death of her chilblains be put down to her not living in her parents’ house any more? She was in a warm Hall of Residence in Liverpool and afterwards we lived generally in warmer housing, until we moved to Suffolk.
My house as a child was very cold and I was always having time off with a hat fever like runny nose. In fact one of my memories is my mother boiling up handkerchiefs on the gas stove for my father and I. He suffered terrible catarrh and was always sucking on dreadful menthol sweets. I remember, he used to keep his garage very warm and I would often go there to talk to him and listen to football on the Light Programme. Did I go because it was warm?
But everything changed when my grandmother died, as my parents could now afford more electric fires and perhaps more importantly, I got the big sunny bedroom at the back of the house. I was also about twelve and could spend more time in the fresh air, when it wasn’t cold.
Over the years in Suffolk, C and I developed our own ways of living with cold weather.
She always wrapped up well, did a lot of exercise and I usually had a fan heater playing on my feet.
I did keep my car hotter than she did. I seem to remember, she adjusted her Porsche to 22.5°C. I liked it warmer.
I can also remember staying in hotels in London several times when C complained very much about the high temperature.
When she died in 2007, I did a lot of things to warm the house up, like putting in extra radiators and buying the thickest duvet I could find. I have since bought a thinner one.
It does seem strange that my rhinitis started about that time.
So it does seem that temperature and humidity, has a lot of effect on my rhinitis.
One thing I’m going to do, is make sure my heating and ventilation is completely and precisely controllable.
Wherefore Art Thou Romeo?
I’m not referring to a lover, but to Romeo’s Gluten Free Bakery that has been coming soon in Upper Street since the Spring.
I was in a shop opposite on Friday and one of the assistants there couldn’t understand how opening a shop could take so long. She also knew the size of the rent, they will be paying, so it looks like this is one business venture that probably won’t get off the ground.
They’ve whetted everybody’s appetite by saying what’s coming soon and then not done anything. A date on the window would help.
I’ve given up on them ever opening and I’ll stick to my Genius.
Which Is The Best UK University For Students With Coeliac Disease?
When I went to Liverpool University in the 1960s, I hadn’t been diagnosed with coeliac disease, but this article from the BBC web site about students with nut allergies got me thinking.
In my travels around the country, I find cities and towns vary with their knowledge of the disease. For instance, London, Brighton, Cambridge and Liverpool are easy cities for a coeliac and others like Ipswich, Blackpool and Middlesbrough are difficult.
I think drinking could be the biggest problem, as it is only in a few places you can drink a pint of something gluten-free, like real cider. At least these days, there is a wide availability of microwaveable meals from the major supermarkets that are gluten free and there are now reliable Indian restaurants, who cook with gram flour everywhere. And you can usually find a Pizza Express. Who’d have thought that good gluten-free pizza would be available nearly everywhere, a few years ago?
I think in the 1960s, being a coeliac, would have been a real problem at university and I probably would have taken an easy option to stay in London with my aunt. I couldn’t have lived with my parents in Felixstowe, as there was no University in the county.
So my life as a coeliac would have been totally different. I certainly wouldn’t have met my wife and would have missed out on forty very happy years.
One Of The Few Clocks In London
There are very few clocks in London. But this one on St. Pauls is very visible.
One Of The Few Clocks In London
Except for Big Ben and the clock on Shell-Mex House, it must be one of the few visible from the river.
Endless Stair
Endless Stair is according to its publicity, a striking sculpture composed of 15 Escher-like interlocking staircases. For more about M C Escher look here.
The structure was certainly attracting attention by the Tate Modern.
Note the picture from the Millennium Bridge which shows it in front of the Tate Modern at the right.
My Thames Water Bill
I had my Thames Water statement this morning. People complain about the cost of water and sewage, but I paid just £82.54 for 179 days.
That works out at 0.46 pence a day. And I thought the halfpenny wasn’t legal tender any more.
I actually used twenty one tonnes of water over that period or about 117 litres a day.
According to the Times today, the average Thames Water bill is £354 a year. I pay less than half that, which is to be expected, as my house is single occupied.
Buying Gloves
I get through a lot of leather gloves, as I tend to drop them, so as they are now back in the stores, I invested in three pairs for the winter.
I tried John Lewis first, but they had no small ones at all.
So I just walked down the road to Marks and Spencer, where they had lots of all sizes, including smalls.
Am I to conclude that men with small hands don’t shop at John Lewis?
The Anonymous Widower 