9.9.2024 Expansion.

 ~o~

  Monday 9th 60F/16C 7.00] Heavy overcast. Rain is forecast. Possible thundery cloudbursts. Temperatures dropped to a more normal autumnal. Lucky I mowed the grass beforehand.

 Up at 6.am after a restless night. Physio in town at 9am in the new venue. Removals permitting.  

Bramble patch from upstairs.
The pond is all but invisible at front left.

 I haven't mentioned how much some, once familiar, towns and cities have changed. Vast new buildings are going up everywhere. Both in city centers and on sprawling industrial estates. Denmark must be doing very well. Villages are expanding with many new estates on greenfield sites. 

 Meanwhile, village supermarkets and shops are often struggling. The big chains are closing uneconomical outlets. Depriving locals of shopping facilities and postal services. Which can severely alter the balance of shopping high streets. While others are expanding. Or changing hands. Most noticeable is the shrinking of the cycling retail sector. Village bike shops cannot compete with online prices. So yet another local service disappears. 

 Repairs are vital to keeping the countless bicycles running. In the absence of a local workshop then many are forced into their cars. For their daily commute or journey to school. Buses seem to be completely out of touch with the need for easy and affordable rural travel. With huge vehicles often empty. Or carrying only one or two passengers. 

 Even if they halved the size of the bus it would still need a driver and maintenance workshop. The need for rural transport for the elderly is hardly met by occasional buses. With subsidized taxis, or minibuses largely taking over responsibility for healthcare transport.

 10.00 The physio exercises went well. After the exercise cycling I moved onto the various machines. Three repetitions of 15 exercises on each is the norm and recorded on a personal record sheet.

  13.15 After that I drove to visit my English friend. The roads were badly puddled from heavy rain. Though there was little or no rain while I was traveling. I shopped on the way home to restock the larder.  

 18.00 63F/17C. Heavy overcast. I have just exhausted myself attacking the bramble patch and assorted overgrown hedges. The heavy duty, DeWalt strimmer is crap. It's only purpose is trimming medium length grass. It bogs down in thick, long grass and has no effect on anything thicker than a medium nettle stem. The heavy, DeWalt hedge clipper is more useful at attacking brambles and thick stemmed weeds. 

 I made a dent about a meter deep in the bramble patch in half an hour of really struggling. Then the recycling bin had to be brought back from the corner as well. So I am dripping with sweat and knackered now. I dare not work any longer than about quarter of an hour on the brambles. It is such hard work it makes me feel unwell. They are far taller than me and many stems as thick as my thumb!

 Dinner was fried chicken, mushrooms and eggs. The egg was already broken in the shell. One shell already broken in the box.

  ~o~