Cholesterol; road tedium; lovely lovely whiteness

Discovered last week from my doctor’s surgery that my cholesterol levels are moderately high; news which was followed by an irritating appointment with a nurse (I am reminded of Little Britain’s Marjorie Dawes) and a slightly less irritating consultation with a GP. The upshot seems to be that they don’t put people on statins until their total level reaches 7, so I am to eat a lower fat diet for a year and then get tested again. Sulked for most of last week, but am moderately resigned to giving it a go (I say ‘moderately’).

Returned to Reading for the weekend but didn’t achieve much on Saturday, partly through continued sulking at unfairness of cholesterol levels. Perked up a bit on Sunday and Ruth and I took a load of stuff to the tip, including plastering leftovers, soot and other crap from the chimney rescue and some empty paint cans. Back home I primed various bits of wood in the attic before cooking a Jamie Oliver recipe for dinner involving tuna steaks (they count as oily fish, dontcha know) on a bed of pulses and herbs. With some Chardonnay. I don’t think wine is high in fat.

Am more or less into my routine of 5.30am starts from Reading to get back to my flat in time for breakfast before work, but Monday’s journey proved particularly trying. Arrived at the A404 Marlow-Bisham bypass around 6am to discover that it was blocked off by police; thanks to this horse, I discovered later. Reckless beast. That only necessitated a relatively minor detour through Marlow, but was distinctly peeved to discover half an hour later that junction 10 of the M40 was also closed. Continuing to junction 11 involves a major detour, so must explore possible alternative routes as this is not the first time junction 10 has been closed since I’ve been driving this route. This article seems to reckon that the junction is particularly awkwardly laid out, which there is some truth in.

Belated mention that painter Chris O'Toole did a fabulous job on bedrooms 1 and 2 and the upstairs hallway - walls now beautifully coated in Dulux Jasmine White, while we went for a satinwood rather than gloss on the woodwork as a couple of the painters I saw reckoned that gloss discolours in central heating. Never knew that. Chris even found and fitted a little piece of skirting to replace the piece that apparently popped out after Handyman Paul did some enthusiastic bashing in the next room. Top bloke.

Sturdy TVs; meditation; afternoon tea

The news of the ‘end of the line’ for analogue TVs reminded me that I’ve been trying for a while to convince my 10-year-old 28” Beko TV that it’s coming to the end of its useful life, but it continues in robust health. Given that it wasn’t particularly expensive when I bought it, and it was a make I’d never heard of at the time, I’m quite impressed. I would quite like an excuse to buy a new flatscreen jobbie though so have been trying to drop hints to it, but thus far it has refused either to explode or to throw itself from its perch.

Have just had a pleasant few days off work, much of it spent aimlessly bumbling. On Thursday, took myself to Oxford for the day, using the bus for a change – takes longer than the train but cheaper and goes from Caversham. Went to visit Inner Space Oxford, an offshoot of the Global Retreat Centre mentioned in a previous post. Attended a lunchtime guided meditation session, involving sitting in rows in a white room staring at a large orange oval shape on one wall. Quite good although I had my usual problem of drifting off during guided meditations (see previous post), in this case recovering my concentration to discover that I was supposed to have left the physical realm and become pure light. Perhaps a tad advanced for beginners. On the way out I impulsively bought a DVD containing a selection of visual meditations, which I have been trying out this week. Lots of pleasant scenes of nature, inspiring messages etc. Bit naff but it does beat just sitting for 10 minutes attempting to focus on the breath but actually looking around the living room and checking watch.

Then went for a meander around the University of Oxford Botanic Garden, now that I can get in free – was inspired by recent visit to the Harcourt Arboretum to become a Friend of the Garden, as this apparently allows free entry not only to the Garden and Arboretum but also to Kew – as the entrance fee to Kew is about £13 this seemed quite a good deal.

Went up to the marina in the evening to see Ray and had a pleasant pasta dinner. Two boats in the narrowboat marina have acquired kittens, apparently from the same litter, which were scampering in and out of Ray’s boat in a fashion I thought quite cute, until one of them was sick on the floor.

On Friday, drove down to Herefordshire to spend a couple of days with Mum. Have discovered, among other things, that I am oblivious to the plight of suffering farm animals. Mum popped out to the local shop early on Saturday morning and I went to sit out on the patio with a magazine, but was disturbed by a sheep persistently bleating very close to the hedge, so after throwing a few words of abuse its way I eventually went inside. A couple of hours later, it dawned on us that it was staying in the same spot an awfully long time and, on investigating, Mum discovered that it had got its head stuck in the fence. She duly phoned the farmhouse and, a speedy 45 minutes or so later, the farmer arrived to release it.

Later in the day we went out for a short walk along the disused railway line from Llanfoist Crossing to the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal, a dinky little canal that is apparently completely landlocked and not connected to the rest of the canal system. It looked a lovely spot for a pleasant meander in a boat, although how you get a boat onto it from anywhere else is a bit of a mystery. After the walk we went for tea at the Llanwenarth Hotel near Abergavenny. We were restrained enough to order only one full tea (sandwiches; scones and cream; assortment of cakes) between us, with a couple of extra scones for good measure.

Later in the evening we cooked an interesting fusion supper of keema matar and Korean fried squash (ho-pahk juhn) made with a couple of courgettes from Dad’s garden. One of the courgettes had grown quite large and bulbous so was quite proud of myself for handling it. Now I just need Ruth to get rid of the really big potato that’s lurking at the back of the vegetable rack.

We also made a summer pudding (although all I did was boil the fruit) which turned out quite well. Took this picture immediately Mum had freed it from its bowl, in case it collapsed, but it held firm. Quite impressed.

On Sunday went for a last Sunday lunch at the farmhouse at Ashbury where Ruth's aunt has lived for the last 50 years, prior to her imminent move to a smaller house. Much of her packing had been done but Ruth managed to purloin quite a large number of posh-looking wine glasses, which I will no doubt break.

Had another day off on Monday which I mainly spent doing useful jobs (going to gym; sweeping debris off kitchen floor, etc). Was interrupted late afternoon by a lady conducting an Ipsos Mori survey (must get new front door with spyhole), which I reluctantly agreed to participate in - it ended up taking about 40 minutes due to a combination of the repetitive nature of the questions and her seeming lack of expertise with the technology she was using. Just when she had finally finished, Harley bounded in, ran over to her, stuck his head in her bag and then knocked the cable out of the back of her laptop. Cue several minutes of ‘oh dear, I think I’ve lost everything’, while I remonstrated with Harley somewhat unconvincingly and tried to simultaneously convey sympathy and impatience for her to leave. Eventually she left, saying that I was the first person this had happened with.

She also mentioned that she’d had quite a good result in our area with getting people to complete the survey. Made mental note to move to area where more of the residents have day jobs.