10/04/23 Upgrade

Total nightmare going back a couple of weeks now over what should have been a simple upgrade of my phone from an S21 Ultra to an S23 Ultra. Far too long and convoluted a tale to tell here but O2 have massively cocked up every aspect and today, after spending much of the morning in the Chelmsford shop I left with a working phone (if only by a rather unsatisfactory workaround for the main problem). I got home, tried to make a call, and got "No network connection". Back into town, find another disabled parking slot, back to the shop...

So now I have two phones neither of which work.

One of them "might" start working by mid-day tomorrow. If not, it'll probably be back to the shop again.

Not a satisfied customer. Not at all.

09/04/23 Back to Boules

The gaps between posts seem to get longer and longer. Still busy with all the consequences of the move - just one cardboard box of surplus multipoints left now. Various meals out which I'll post photos of a bit later. The old #1 computer didn't survive the move and has now been replaced, and the old three-monitor setup has been updated to a single "ultrawide" curved screen.

More myeloma blood tests due Tuesday 18th, and I need to phone the new GP surgery about some routine blood test results from March 13th (no idea where those results went or what happened to them) and also about my 3-monthly B12 injection which is due on the 26th.

Main news of the day is that I played boules at Ongar this morning - first time for six months, what with having to stop driving because of the cataracts, then the cold winter weather, and then the move. It was the day of the annual "Twinning" match against a French team from Cerizay. We won my match 13-10, and the final score against the French was a magnifique 3-1 win. We then played "friendlies" with one English and one French against another mixed pair. Won that one too, by 13-11. Particularly pleasing because my Ongar opponent was one of the stronger match players in the club. A rare pleasure to beat her! 

28/03/23 Too long...

 ...since the last post. Too much still going on with the ramifications of the move, and nothing new to say about the myeloma. Moving to the new GP practice started very well but then ground to a halt as our initial appointments were twice cancelled because of "staff illness". However we now have doctor appointments (rather than Health Care Assistant ones) in time for the next round of prescriptions. And dates for #7 Covid vaccinations as well. So everything is ok again, as long as nothing else goes wrong.

Breakfast at The Ship about a week ago. Only three minutes walk away, and a pleasure to find a pub that still looks and feels like pubs should do:

After a lot of delays, the much-needed dishwasher arrived today. Now being installed. That's going to make working in the very small kitchen a lot easier.

17/03/23 Amazon!

Two of the packages that went astray turned up over the road, and two more have been delivered correctly. Things are getting better...

Breakfast at The Ship tomorrow, a very short walk away.

Still having a bit of trouble with the CPAP mask, keep getting very low "mask seal" scores. Before we moved I figured out an arrangement of pillows that worked well, but I haven't yet got it right here. I have installed new storage for the mask and hose, and the hooks also let me get the hose coming downwards rather than straight across, which a number of people on the facebook CPAP group seem to find helpful.

Mike our handyman (rather than the McCarthy & Stone one) did a good job in the kitchen and around the place again today. We have to make full use of every bit of storage space...

I did this ingenious fix for the problem of the radiator towel rail slipping off the radiator, but it was his idea:

15/03/23 BT, Amazon

At last starting to feel that we've got on top of things, but there's still a lot...

Two (small) cardboard boxes still left in my room, both full of multipoint extension leads. We don't seem to need half as many as we did in the old house, but still unwilling to throw any out.

The new BT digital phones are a continuing problem. We got a third one for Sue's room but it refuses to register itself, even after taking the batteries out for half an hour. A BT man is coming in the morning to try his luck. Even worse, and after several assurances that it definitely was possible, BT have told us that we can't transfer our old number after all. So all the "change of address" things we did on the basis that BT knew what they were talking about have to be re-done. What fun!

The transfer from our old GP surgery in Writtle to the new Rivermead one in Chelmsford has gone surprisingly well. On advice, we waited to get a full month's prescription of everything then did an online form (much easier than some), had texts the next morning saying we've successfully registered, and now we have appointments for meetings with a Health Care Assistant early next week. No sign of an actual doctor yet, but no doubt that will come soon enough. Did a routine blood test for the old place a couple of days ago, no idea what will happen to the results from that. At least the Chelmsford Health Hub where I now have to go for blood to be taken is just next to the bus station - about eight minutes walk away, including the few minutes it takes to get from our front door to the front door of the building:

Amazon drivers have a great deal of trouble finding us - we've had at least two delivered to a wrong address over the road despite claiming  to have been "handed to resident", and at least one seems to have gone permanently astray. In fairness, a few more have arrived OK, but I've had to spend much too long dealing with Amazon chatbots and even real people dealing with complaints and refunds and re-orders. More deliveries are due today...

Yesterday afternoon took a walk towards the High Street and ended up in the Cathedral grounds. Not the grandest or most attractive of cathedrals, but it's got something:

09/03/23 Swansea

Trying to do the change of address on my driving licence. Nightmare! Will have to go to a Post Office to get the paper forms to do it the old way.  And guess where I was this morning? In a Post Office returning a load of BT equipment...

01/03/23 One box at a time

We're getting there, slowly. Most of the cardboard boxes have gone, only six left now (I think) and at least two of those are full of box files that can't be unpacked until our "handyman" has put some big shelves up. That's middle of next week if all goes according to plan. I spent much of the morning in B&Q  buying materials for him. One of the others is full of multipoint extension leads, I think they're breeding in there and gradually colonising the other boxes as well.

BT. Oh what a pain...

The broadband is up and running - 400 to 600 mbps download, depending on the room. But the first router they sent us (or Smart Hub 2 as they insist on calling it) was defective and we had to get a new one. And now it seems that the two fancy new digital phones they've sent us are defective as well, so awaiting new ones on Friday.

More later, as ever.

No phone call from the NHS about my paraprotein and free light chain results from the recent blood tests so assuming they're ok.