Car park war has broken out again.

Two sets of new owners have moved in, two couples with two cars to each couple. 

As usual they have purchased their flats and believed every word the estate agent has told them.

There are thirteen parking spaces between 28 flats! 

The parking spaces are small, narrow and short, we currently have a two residents who own large 4 x 4 vehicles. There is only one space big enough for their cars, so they squabble over it.

It's not rocket science is it, there aren't enough spaces for everyone to have a car never mind two cars.

It doesn't bother us, we neither of us drive so don't own a car. I think if we had, we would have checked there was room for us to park before we purchased a flat here.

Books

Reading is one of the few pleasures I have left.

I can't see well enough to read conventional books but I use a kindle so I can enlarge the font.

I'm a voracious reader, well let's face it there isn't much else I can do.

I pay for kindle unlimited so I have plenty of free books to choose from.

A couple of days ago I paid £5.99 for a book, Skint Estate by Cash Carraway. I thoroughly enjoyed it, though parts of it were a bit harrowing.

I'm not into romances, I prefer books like the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell or books by Ben Aaronovitch. Sometimes I re-read all the Terry Pratchett books.

Macular traction.

 The most common macular problem is macular degeneration, this can be helped by injections.

I don't have that I have macular traction which is different.

I was told that surgery would solve the problem.

I had surgery on my eye.

The surgery failed and the surgeon mistakenly sliced my retina.

After this I refused surgery on my other eye!

No conversation.

Ellen, I'm not so much upset as seriously pissed off.

There is no therapy or help available here, I can't get a Drs appointment for love or money. All I can do is keep buggering on.

Steve is not really capable of holding a conversation for more than a few minutes. What he thinks is conversation is actually a series of rants about how crap his life is.

When we lived on the boat he had more control, if I suggested we moor near some other boats Steve would usually decide there wasn't room for us. This meant he had complete control over who I could speak to.

Here I've been able to speak to the other residents, Betty has become a friend but Steve would rather I tried to speak with the residents he prefers. Because I have problems with my hearing I tend to gravitate towards the people with loud voices. 

Out to lunch.

 Steve took me for lunch today, I had chicken served with flatbread, it was lovely, though somewhat spoilt by Steve's non-stop moaning. Fortunately it was very noisy in the pub, so I've no idea what he was moaning about.

Our neighbour Pat came round, she wants to hold a BBQ for her birthday and Steve has volunteered to cook for her. We're hoping Betty will do the salads, if not, I'll do them.

I went to the summer house this afternoon, Harry was holding forth. Like a lot of men, he loves the sound of his own voice. Sometimes it's good to be deaf. I didn't stay long, I go for conversation but there was none. Just Harry lecturing everyone about something he knows nothing about.

I've developed a small black spot on my eye, or I should probably say a small blank spot. It's making it difficult to read and reading is all I have left.

Steve is listening to music and getting rat arsed, deep joy! 

General election

I shall vote, I feel it is important but I think politicians are a wunch of bankers.

Fruit and veg box

 This is what was in my box today.

Carrots, cabbage, spinach, avocado, apples, oranges and a huge beefsteak tomato.

I've already eaten an Apple and made coleslaw with some of the cabbage and carrots.

I'm having a chicken pie this evening, I shall have some of spinach with it. 

Tomorrow I shall stuff the huge tomato and eat that.

I have nectarines and strawberries due on Friday from Tesco.

Lucky.

The on going tainted blood scandal rumbles on.

I received a blood transfusion at around that time, I was lucky, mine wasn't tainted.

It did mean that I had to lie about it for years afterwards whenever I applied for a mortgage.

I had to lie and claim that I'd never received a blood transfusion.

Fortunately my first mother in law never knew about my transfusion, if she had she'd have told everyone I had Aids.

She was a bundle of fun!

In my day.

I've noticed some people are posting about their nonasthetic lifestyle.

I gather this means you are untidy and don't have a life where everything matches. You live a life where things aren't beautiful.

I need to adopt this term, nothing in my flat matches and I don't care!

When my children were small I never could stand the competitive mothers and I intentionally stepped back from them. 

I couldn't stand the constant boasting, the "my child is learning the piano and is going to be a concert pianist" or the "my child is reading at two years old and is going to be the next Einstein".

Shopping

We have our shopping delivered on Friday,  between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.

I've been doing my shopping online for many years now.

But I'm no longer to be trusted to do this as I was spending too much money so Steve has taken over.

I'm not bothered as I can walk to Aldi or Lidl if I want anything.

I also prefer fresh fruit and vegetables which is why I now get a box delivered every week.

The shopping is, in fact, more expensive as Steve prefers to buy 'named brands' but that is his choice.

He is currently not speaking to me and has gone into town in a strop, to the pub.

My sin was to snap at him, something I rarely do. 

Before the shopping arrives Steve likes to pace, he checks the time continually and paces between our flat and the car park. He can spend easily half an hour doing this.

Once the shopping is here Steve starts to move it into the flat. If I help by moving some of the shopping, he complains because I'm getting in his way when he is sorting the shopping. Other times he complains because I'm not helping him.

Often I walk Beano when the shopping arrives just to get out the way.

Today I noticed that I still had part of last week's loaf left, so I put this week's in the freezer.

Ye gods, you'd have thought I was packing live babies into the freezer.

Steve went into a full blown panic, I lost my temper and told him to shut up and stop moaning.

Bloody men

I got up this morning and staggered to the bathroom, when I opened the bathroom cabinet I was met by the sight of many busy little ants running around.

I was not best pleased and wondered how the ants has gained access to the cabinet as there are two external doors, a long corridor and an internal door between the cabinet and the outside world.

Once up, breakfasted and dressed I solved the conundrum. My neighbour Harry has a bucket of raspberry canes on his doorstep. These have been dug up from somewhere for him, complete with ants.

I doubt if Harry has the strength or energy to plant these and he will be hoping Steve will plant them for him. Today he is out of luck as Steve has an appointment to get his hearing aids checked.

I hope Harry can be persuaded to put the canes outside until such time as someone is able to plant them for him!

Doctors.

My surgery is struggling to recruit Drs, they currently have two very part time Drs covering two different surgeries that are some miles apart.

There is a long wait for appointments, that's if the reception team think you need an appointment.

I've been before with gout so I have been diagnosed by a Dr.

My attacks of gout only tend to last a couple of weeks and by the time I get an appointment the attack will be over.

Worse almost than the pain of the gout is the accompanying earache. Steve complains non-stop if I have anything wrong with me. I never mention if I'm unwell but my difficult walking is a bit of a giveaway.

Steve has a painful knee, he claims it is red and swollen though it doesn't look that way. It gives him an excuse to chew Nurofen plus by the packet.

Rose Chafer

I've just taken Beano for a walk, whilst we were out a Rose Chafer landed in my hair. I didn't notice it at first, I assumed it was a leaf. When I went to move it I realised it was alive and picked it out of my hair and placed it on a nearby plant. They are beautiful beetles, quite large with iridescent greeny bronze wings.

Beano was decidedly unimpressed and took to his heels, he's a bit of a wuss really.

I vacuumed through today, I don't think I did a very good job as I really can't see what I'm doing. I still l need to give the kitchen a bit of a blitz but it can wait until my foot has stopped throbbing.

Gout

Oh bugger, I've got an attack of gout! 

It's bloody painful and slows me down a lot, it takes ages to walk Beano every day.

I've been taking painkillers occasionally but they have little effect and make me feel nauseous.

Steve has helped by complaining non-stop and telling me to go the the Drs. I don't see any point, the Dr diagnosed it some years ago. I don't know what causes it to flare up.

I need to vacuum through but can't face it when I'm in so much pain , I will have to wait until the pain subsides.

It's not a long boat!

I recently got a new book via kindle unlimited, it is a godsend to me as I read a lot of books. I can't hear well enough to listen to the radio and I can't see the TV so books are my lifeline.

The book was about a murder on the canal system. On the very first page of the novel a narrow boat was referred to as a long boat. I didn't read anymore and deleted the book. I don't expect anyone to be an expert on everything but for heaven's sake do some research! 

A long boat is what the Vikings used, the boats on the canals are called narrow boats!

Lunch out

Betty and I went shopping today, I didn't buy anything but I was happy to wander around the shops with her. Betty was buying gifts for an event she's organising.

We had lunch out, fish and chips, very nice it was too.

We came home, I took Beano out for a walk, Steve said he'd already walked him but Beano was happy to go out.

Then I went to the summer house which Beano always enjoys.

I was back indoors just after 4 p.m. and Steve was in a chatty mood. Unfortunately he soon went from chatty to whinge mode. He hates it here, he hates the other owners, on and on.

Eventually I told him I'd be happy to put the flat on the market and we could split the proceeds. I told him I'd move in with my daughter and he could move wherever he wanted to.

There was silence for about 30 minutes, he then announced that he only had about four years to live so it wasn't worth him moving.