Shortly before Christmas and after two years of begging and pleading we were finally put on the link, which for those who are not familiar with the trappings of old age and infirmity is a device which is linked to the telephone and a pendant worn about the neck.
Should the wearer fall of be otherwise taken ill he presses the pendant and an alarm goes of at a centre who then call your telephone number.
If the phone is not answered they assume that you are unable to reach it ans they send help at once.
Complicated, perhaps but the peace of mind this device imparts is beyond price, certainly more than the three pounds per week that we pay for it services, or it should be.
Located in my sons bedroom is the house telephone, this was done for a variety of reasons and makes little difference to the problem. The hard ware for the device is connected to the telephone again no problem as the alarm should only go off if someone presses the panic button, allegedly! Should this happen my son would if at home get up to see eat was happening.
Almost as soon as the box was installed the problems began, the box began to bleep when no one had pressed the panic button, and when this happened while my son was sleeping during the day of course he was disturbed by it. While my son is asleep the telephone volume is turned down, all our friends use our mobile numbers any way so there should be no problem. We called the installer who got rather shirty and refused to believe there was a problem, the next time it happened he was convince that is=t was our fault.
Today it happened again, this time while my son was awake and the telephone volume was turned up, the call turned out to be a telephone salesman and these are the only people who use our land line. What was surprising was that the alarm box began to bleep, it should not do this every time the telephone rings, Having got rid of the salesman with a polite refusal (sic) my son called our land line using his mobile, the box began to bleep, we called our land line from my mobile and the same thing happened. Either the gadget has been set up incorrectly or it is malfunctioning for some the reason.
After this triumph of deductive reasoning my son preened himself for the rest of the day and behaved like Sherlock Holmes to my very inferior Watson, but since he had been the person most inconvenienced by the gadget how could blame him?
Research into the matter uncovered the fact that this particular model is ancient and should have been phased out some time ago. My son is incandescent having been accused by the installers of (playing with the device.) My son is almost thirty years old and is not inclined to bugger about like a three year old child,he is needless to say looking forward to speaking the the installer when he comes on Thursday to put a new box. Enough said!
Perhaps I have mentioned the quite large flock of Rose Necked Parakeets which inhabit the trees around our home. Over the years we have become accustomed to these garrulous birds and do not mind their presence in the garden one bit. Through out the year they entertain use with their antics and their acrobatics and we watch them defend their nest holes and rear their young. Watching these young take their first steps to independence is both wonderful and funny and as the parents bring them to our feeding stations as soon as they leave the nest we miss none of the fun.
Just one thing still seems very odd however and that is the appearance of these gaudy visitors when there is thick snow on the trees, they look so funny and so out of place surrounded by the cold snow. When there is snow their acrobatics cause many a small avalanche which buries anything which happens to be perched on the branch below and since these birds feed in a flock that is usually another parakeet.
Such entertainment as this deserves a reward and we always make sure that there are plenty of their favourite peanuts in the feeders and also apples which they love.
Once I tried them with bananas but each time I put one out it was taken almost at once by a magpie and this happened each time until there was a very unseemly scuffle between two magpies which scared the cat into fits...........I no longer feed bananas to the birds!
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