Baking

3 yr old baking cakes

This afternoon our "London" grandchildren arrived for a few days. My wife baked buns with them and then went to the windmill next door. It was a very successful and happy afternoon. After bath time playing "Snakes and Ladders" with a 3 year old was a lot more of a challenge.

"London" grandchildren.

Tomorrow we are having our "London" grandchildren to stay for a few nights They are 3 and nearly 7 years old. We love ALL our little ones. They are all unique.

NHS woes - yet again

All I wanted was written confirmation of my appointment to have my stomach PEG removed next Tuesday.  20 minutes on the phone, 3 foreign accents, no attempt at "ownership" of my issue before I eventually got a ward nurse who promised me the appointment was on and a letter was coming. I'll believe this when it comes.

Sorry, but this sort of rubbish behaviour is just not acceptable. In private industry we were told to own the customer's problem, seek out the answers, then ring back with the answers. The standard NHS response is to try to disown the problem, or so it would seem.

NHS communications is PATHETIC.

20 minutes on the phone and passed from pillar to post - I had to ring them 3 times -  when all I was asking for was the normal procedure of a letter to confirm what to do, where to go, date, what time etc. It took me all my power not to swear down the phone as I was so exasperated.

Let no-one say the NHS does not need reform! Fix the communications, give customers a better deal and save billions in waste.

They should have (a) sent me an appointment letter weeks ago, and (b) when they'd not, apologised , one single person should have understood my problem and dealt with it. Instead, I was left, yet again, in a state of exasperation. Multiply this 100 times over in a single day and you get some idea of the inefficiencies in their system.

Flyer in the post today

Christmas in October seems the flavour of the month.

Today our local farm shop and cafe (La Hogue) sent a flyer in the post with prices for Christmas meats and 20% discounts for their cafe in January and February 2015. WHY do we need this in OCTOBER?

They must be desperate.

Winter power cuts?

I wonder if we'll see power cuts this winter? Spare National Grid capacity is very low because of closures and other reasons. Some are saying the Jet Stream is moving and we are in for the cldest winter in 100 years.  See  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29794632 .

October - Christmas already?

Call me old fashioned, but Christmas is Dec 25th. It really annoyed me to see the windows of John Lewis in Cambridge decorated for Christmas and it is only October!!   Even more annoying was Scotsdales Garden Centre fully geared up for Christmas last week. It may well have been like this earlier.

All this smacks of one thing: commercialism.  I hate it.

Glasses

Our 5 year old grandson tried on my wife's reading glasses earlier this evening. They rather suit him! He looks a real little swot!

Sorry about the flash reflection in the glasses - I was never the world's best at photography.