wet market day

I usually stay indoors on a day like this but my fridge is empty of green groceries

I run my washing machine in the night when the off peak electricity is half price
and hung up the washing after breakfast - just look at those IKEA colours from about 6 years ago.


but there was a strong smell of cheap washing powder from Sainsbury's

I have never snapped my computer when off, instead of a cover I use a spare towel - usually a tea towel, but they are not big enough so an old bath towel from 230, Widney Lane - or even my child hood.

The second-hand office chair from 1999 is collapsing and needs a pile of IKEA covered cushions to get me into position.

The oak telephone table was made from the panelling of Trostrey Court by an Usk carpenter on the instructions of my granny Watkins to bear her battery operated radio in about 1936, later it had her 1952 TV on it

that darn rubbish chute was blocked again
The Prince Pub is getting redecorated I think.
not much left of the irish tricolours


the police would love to bug this phone to get the drug dealers mobile phone numbers

in the newsagents


I got next weeks Radio Times

but missing glass in the Bosworth Drive bus stop meant only two seats were useable as I waited for the 97 bus.


neat bus signs printed on corrugated cardboard
(and nearly at the markets)

and the 97 bus sign is held in place by paper clips- as we turn the last corner into Birmingham by the parish church


3:35 pm and alighting and the market looks very good (for me not the stall holders) - rainy and beginning to sell out - many bargains will be to had

6 frozen pieces of chicken for £3
by the cheese stall

This Brie is soft and unrefrigerated as cheeses as should be.

wonderful oranges for £1


Lychee £2 a box or £1 a scoop


I got a blue bag of cherry tomatooes for £1 but passed on 20 bananas for £1


I grabbed a couple of freebie cauliflowers on the way into the skip, but washed them well when I got home - and some bits went straight into the soup.



the cauliflower skip is to the right.


note the time - just on 4:05 pm on St Martins - and I was all done and had spent £15 in 30 minutes

the 97 bus arrived at once - I anchored my new LIDL trolley to the post with a rolled plastic bag because it falls over at the roundabouts - the umbrella was never unfurled.

The BSA headquarters, Kitts Green, was getting its new windows ready to be occupied by the National Probation Service



at last blue sky between the showers seen in Bosworth Drive

parcel

The Prince pub outside the front door of Merton House

I got off the 97 bus one stop early and walked over to Chelmsley Wood telephone exchange and post sorting office

a postie said to me "It's like the ark in there" Noah's he meant, because the empty pigeon holes haev long since been replaced by machine sorting

after I collected my mysterious parcel and walked down all those stairs I spotted this hand operated fire alarm by the street door

but no one cleans up this piece of grass - neither Solihull Council nor the Post Office

I am going into the shopping center and up to the balcony level


the new false ceiling is nearly finished over the escalators


I have never seen such bright red and glossy apples before


this is pensioners in a feeding frenzy - the lady second from the left is picking out meat on which the use-by date stamp expires today and marking it down


I found some and got her to mark it down for me too


then there was a wine tasting

a very pleasant Sommerfield own brand 6.6% apple wine - which we call cider

just checking the prices of spices


and the whisky and other spirits

and when I got home I unpacked my four freebie light bulbs

feeling better

I was quite unwell yesterday but, after fasting. this is my first normal meal



and when I went out the landinsg was highly polished

the staircase walls have been repainted all but these inches by the floor

the 97 bus is already in sight on a rain swept Bosworth Drive.
I went into Chelsmley Wood to stock up on yoghurt and stuff to help restore my gut which was disturbed by a reaction to an antebiotic AUGMENTIN - Google Search

Then I saw a bank manager to open a "teapot" account Lloyds TSB - Save the Change




when i came out of Chelmsley Wood Shopping Centre thhere was blue sky


I sat on the wall to wait for the bus

my new trolley has room for an umbrella
and this is the first time I saw a Picasso Citroen car not on TV


Roses beginning to make new leaves in a pensioner's garden


back to the rubbish by Merton House front door

my temperature was up yesterday but I could not remember what "normal" was in centigrade and I could not be bothered to go on line - or even switch the TV or radio on

I phoned our National Health Direct 0845 4647, and asked "what is a normal body temperature?"
The person who took down my details refused to answer "I am not medically qualified"


on their web site 37°C (98.6°F) NHS Direct home page
NHS Direct - Common health questions - How do I take someone’s temperature?: "For guidance, a ‘normal’ temperature is in the range 36-36.8ºC (96.8-98.24ºF).If you’re taking the temperature of a child, always stay with them during the reading, and put the thermometer away immediately afterwards."


Thermoregulation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "the temperature of warm-blooded animals is maintained with but slight variation. In health under normal conditions the temperature of humans varies between 36.5 °C and 37.5 °C, or if the thermometer be placed in the axilla, between 36.25 °C and 37.5 °C. In the mouth the reading would be from 0.25 °C to 1.5 °C higher than this; and in the rectum some 0.9 °C higher still. The temperature of infants and young children has a much greater range than this, and is susceptible of wide divergencies from comparatively slight causes."

later 8 February 2007 snow

Merton House garden


ready to be chopped up to be steamed

see me

experiments with videophone settings for the kind of light




all taken within a few minutes






below my kitchen window


loking towards the west


due north

and north east


in the steamer reader to be on for 50 minutes
which is what the rice in the bottom section needs


still a messy spot on the tenth floor

and abretahe of fresh air whilsti get my breathe back and my heart rate down

looking south west

scratched graffiti
and down at the front entrance of Merton House
due west up Bosworth Drive

still missing a ceiling tile after the door telephone TV upgrade

the tiles are are in a safe place to the left in the firehose cupboard
with the risingmain from the rubbish bin room on the groud floor

looking east towards Chelmsley Wood






just a record of the rubbish
as I begin to go down ten floors

very few graffitit or tags

cigarette marked

outside the frontdoor


and the pub opposite

useful notice about the Fordbridge Residents Association
Fordbridge Residents Association - Google Search


the back door
just put my nose out

the new system works here now to get in

why do kids like to scratch the letters off?
it must take hours



still luxury to me
two lifts - odds to the left and even floors to the right


back up again


anf the light begiing to go






just compare the changes




without
or with flash



and I ate during the Deal or No Deal repeat at 18:05