WHAT DOES THE DOCTOR THINK THIS MONTH? Sep 2018

The hot weather has sapped our energy but we have been cracking on with sorting out the house. All bar two of the rooms are now completely habitable and I am able to put the “stuff” stored in the double garage and my storage unit down the road on the backburner, to be dealt with at leisure. It is lovely being so near four of our children and we are beginning to feel more settled.We do miss all of you in Norfolk. The garden has different wildlife from the Norfolk garden. There are no pheasants but we do have two rabbits and several marauding cats who come to visit. The garage has a mouse and our attempts to lure bird life have been interesting. We have a pair of very fat pigeons and a pair of very fat magpies who monopolised the bird feeding system and frightened off all the little birds. I managed to turn this situation around by protecting one of the seed feeders with a hanging squirrel excluding cage. It also excludes magpies and pigeons so we now have plenty of finches, tits and other small birds all chomping away within the cage, well out of reach of the big birds. One treat has been a pair of greater spotted woodpeckers with their youngsters. The youngster sits on one of the bird tables while a parent travels backwards and forwards from the peanut feeder, breaking off bits of peanut and feeding them to the youngster. Our friend Daniel and his team kindly brought all our pot plants over here. They look splendid on the back patio, surrounding the lovely bench given to us by the congregation of St George's Church, and I have been watering them well. However, a holiday looms, friend Barry who used to help me out, still lives in Feltwell and son Grant cannot be watering every day so I got out a pack of those spout things that you screw onto plastic bottles, fill them with water and insert into the soil. Then, over the course of a week, the water dribbles into the soil and keeps the plant going. I had cracked it! A test run a couple of weeks before the holiday saw the bottles all empty within an hour so that was an heroic failure. Move on to plan B – stand all the pots in a shady position in large plastic trays full of water. Grant will visit when he can to top them up. We have an Arts Centre (The Artrix) just down the road in Bromsgrove. Sometimes, it is a cinema, at other times, it is a theatre, and so on. We went to see an Abba tribute show one Saturday evening a couple of weeks ago.the place was packed out with well fed ladies of a certain age, all gyrating madly. I had managed to buy two of the last four tickets and this put us high up at the side rear of the room – useless view but I had a great time watching the lighting engineer whose console was just below our seats. I really hate it at these shows when everyone in front stands up, gyrates and blocks my view. We certainly did not suffer from this on that occasion! We returned to watch the new Mamma Mia film last Friday morning (free coffee and biscuits thrown in for our £6 pensioner tickets) In common with half the cinema, we found it extremely emotional and I would be interested to hear your comments as and when you see the film. Another Friday, Deannie dragged me along to see a french film “Let the Sunshine in” with Juliette Binoche. The first half hour was unashamedly and embarrassingly pornographic – I nearly choked on my free coffee and biscuits – and berated Deannie for making me go and see such a film. The next hour was about the actress ruminating about how she was being “used” by all the men, including her ex-husband, who kept popping in for a quick relationship. Eventually, she decided that she really was being used and told them all to clear off. As we left, Management and I agreed with the other four cinema goers that it was a deep, powerful and totally confusing film. A young couple returned from honeymoon and, while putting away all their wedding presents, they came across and envelope containing two “impossible to get” theatre tickets accompanied by a note “Guess who sent you these?”. They were really touched that someone could be so thoughtful but could not work out the identity of the donor. They returned from the theatre to find their house ransacked and everything stolen. The note on the table said “Now you know who sent them”.........A librarian was woken at 3am by a man who wanted to know what time the library would open in the morning. The librarian berated him but told him 9am. “Not until then?” came the reply. “Why do you want to get in before then?” asked the librarian. “I don't want to get in – I want to get out” Best wishes to you all Ian Nisbet