Shopping list

This looks like a reverse shopping list when I review what I'm going to write but that's how it's been and how my mind organises it. Partly for the critics and employers who imply I don't do enough, so I keep a record of what I do to remind myself I'm not totally idle. Anyway. Yesterday I finally caught the opticians open, they're not nearly as cheap as my usual ones but as I was there I picked some ancient frames and appear to have been given a major discount if they charged me correctly, and they should be here on Wednesday. The frames are the gold pilot style I had when I was 15 and liked them then as well.
I did a few miles on my bike in the rain yesterday as it was just light enough not to get soaked and having missed Thursday due to the boilerman's urgent arrival wanted to make up for it, and found the River Brent despite opening up into a fairly reasonable flow after the Welsh Harp reservoir is locked away behind railings and buildings. But I knew where to look and you'd barely realise by the pictures I took.

Next week I have a few things to look forward to. The video of my programme the most important, then my glasses and then my new computer which is delayed a week for parts. The cd seems stillborn and will need to give Tesco a rocket up the arse for their debut cockup. I'm ordering my next lot of photo prints plus a new hardback book for me without mistakes, the old one is going to our library service.
This week has really been a struggle against conditions. Failed boiler, rain, unreliable people, unreliable machines, the usual crap. It's pissing down now, not that I had many places to go and have a few trips next week to follow railway lines and motorways with the camera. Ultimately I've seen already a picture of people sitting in a room with a picture of them sitting in it on the wall. I've reached a stage where I'll have photos of the views out of the windows on the wall where all you have to do to see them is look out of the window. Each photo I have can be seen by going there but the further you go the harder they are to see, plus not everyone knows where to look. Wickliffe Avenue for a start. This is a dead end road in Finchley I never knew existed, and thought I was still in Hendon as when I approached it from the rear the brook meant I'd left Hendon and all I saw were buildings, not knowing where they were. I'll go up the front of the road next in case it has any more places worth seeing. The brook is about 6 miles long and splits from the Brent in Hendon and ends in High Barnet. It divides districts and creates parkland along its entire length with dead end roads as few were built across it despite being about 10 feet wide. This is Britain where they expected people to ride their horses through rivers, not build bridges.

I admit to becoming pretty bored by the end of the week. I have a bit of an ear infection which has affected my balance on and off and am doing my best not to need antibiotics. That has slowed me down after 100 earlier reasons, it didn't stop me doing a thing thank goodness but made me struggle to do them all. I love adding to numbers though and when I add 3 miles on my bike despite rain I feel satisfaction. My bike is 54 years old I think, I swapped it for the other one which was 50 as it was lighter and only when I went to buy parts for it was told it was older than the other one which I bought when I moved to Oxford in 1988. I had it till 2001 when my mum's neighbour gave up his old bike and swapped it. Then I saw the Peugeot in a shop which I had to ride 15 miles for a tenant who moved and was quicker than any other, but would mean peeing around with mine and decided it wasn't worth the trouble at the time, and now regret it. Too late now.

So despite havoing to wait another week this computer works besides the floppy drive and ethernet as I paid dearly for it to be repaired a month ago may as well get some more use out of it. Call it a motherboard and mine would be prosecuted for neglect of duties. You can't repair the fuckers, £60 for a replacement and AMD processors do only last a few years as they are copies of Intel but heat up and have complex circuits. They are a total waste of money. I won't be getting one in future, assuming the new computer packs up though my laptop is 8 years old and going strong. Well, as I said, a mixture of the dullest details possible, as that is life here. Under instructions to be aware of my being and not be sucked into my thoughts I see that as a challenge and something to compare my future progress with. Who knows, I am told it is possible.