Simple blood test at optician's office could help to diagnose diabetes

A simple finger prick test during routine eye examinations at high street opticians could help to identify millions of people with previously undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes, according to new research. The researchers suggest earlier diagnosis could set people on the road to better management of the disease, which is the leading cause of blindness in the working age population, and that this could ultimately result in cost-savings for the NHS.

Read more in ScienceDaily: Simple blood test at optician's office could help to diagnose diabetes

CoLJ 13 - Owl Cottage is not a flight of fancy.

Our week in Owl Cottage, in Thoralby in the Yorkshire Dales has come to an end. It is a week we have thoroughly enjoyed.

There has been so much written about the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales, by 'proper' writers unlike myself, and even that cannot do justice to the scenery, that I need not try to add my bit. Only a visit shows the reality.

Having written about our unfortunate experience in Camp Cottage it was with some considerable trepidation last Saturday (20th) that we negotiated the rough roller coaster bridle track, entered the drive and approached the front door of Owl Cottage. Remembering the description “Luxury Converted Dairy in the Heart of the Yorkshire Dales National Park with Spectacular Views' Beautiful Scenery and the Perfect Place to Get Away from it All” about the cottage from the website we were fearful our hopes for the week would be shattered, as they were last week.

The spectacular views and beautiful scenery statement was already proven but what of the inside of the cottage we wondered. As we pushed the door open our apprehensions immediately left us and smiles beamed across faces. I was relieved that I hadn't reserved another duff cottage. A quick tour around, well it's only a one bedroom cottage, showed that the inside exceeded our expectations created by the website information.

Our week long stay has confirmed Owl Cottage as a clean, comfortable, cosy, homely, tastefully renovated cottage from what was originally a dairy. Within the property there is almost everything that visitors need. It is an idyllic place to stay in, with the fantastic location and complimentary facilities making it a pleasure to rest here. The excellent value for money is an added bonus. The owners, Jeanette and David, should be proud of the holiday cottage they have created.

Should the opportunity offer itself we most certainly would stay here again.

The anticipation of the ambience of Owl Cottage as “ the perfect place to get away from it all” is not a flight of fancy; it is a reality.

Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival 2011

I mentioned in my previous article, about our journey to the Yorkshire Dales, that our route passed through the village of Kettlewell. As we approached the village there was a higher level of traffic congestion than we expected. As we passed over the bridge over the River Wharfe to enter the village the sign above gave the answer to our speculations as to the cause of the slow moving traffic.

Not having the time on Saturday to stop and view the festivities we decided to return Sunday the final day of the event. We remembered that we had seen an article on a past BBC Country File about the annual Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival when the residents make their many excellent creations and then display them throughout the streets, gardens, and nooks and crannies of the village.

Natalie and I had an enjoyable afternoon strolling along the viewing trail through the entire village. The many photographs I have taken of the creations we saw can be viewed here.

CoLJ 12 - Camp Cottage to Owl Cottage.

On Saturday ( 20^th August ) we moved again, this time from Camp Cottage to Owl Cottage at Swinacote Farm, in Thoralby in the Yorkshire Dales.

Owl Cottage - the righthand part of the farm house

 The journey was uneventful and quite boring for the majority of the time being on the M50, M5 & M6 motorways. However everything changed in the final hour from just south of Skipton, Yorkshire, to our new location for the week. We travelled along the B6265 and the B6160 going north through Wharfedale and Bishopdale in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, passing close to Grassington and through the pretty village of Kettlewell and smaller quaint hamlets. The road twisted and turned along the valley bottom and edges, following the course of the riverbeds, climbing to get over the moorland separating the two dales and descending into Bishopdale. At many locations it becomes nothing more than a single track road with a lot of stopping and manoeuvring to pass oncoming traffic. Interesting driving. The scenery through these dales is fabulous, with Natalie constantly commenting on and saying "look at that view", but I declined from looking for the vast majority of the time, instead concentrating on the next twist and climb of the road.

Northern end of Bishopdale

Once we arrived in the village of Thoralby my faithful SatNavratilova couldn't guide me any more, as the final half a mile access track to the cottage is along a public bridleway, which the cottage owners advise “is not suitable for low bottomed or sports type cars”. They are not wrong with that statement but the bumpy, tyre juddering, car swaying last half mile is worth it.

Click here to see the exact location of the farm, shown to the South West of the village centre, and the off road section.

CoLJ 11 - Camp Cottage builds up your hopes and then lets you down!

Camp Cottage, Brockhampton, Herefordshire

Having passed through the less than elegant gate to the driveway to Camp Cottage, and made sure it was closed properly behind us, to keep the sheep in the field, I drove slowly and steadily along the gravelled track for the last 100 metres across the pasture to the cottage.

Cottage is behind trees in the centre

At last I could recognise a hint of the image that I remembered from the internet website when the reservation was made. It was not until Natalie and I walked round to the front of the cottage that it was confirmed that we had arrived.

We were anxious to get ourselves, luggage and recently purchased groceries into the cottage, and get the kettle on for a well deserved cup of tea.

Having viewed the cottage website we had a reasonably good idea of what to expect, with regards to layout and furnishings, when we entered. If first impressions count, from the outside it was looking good, but was it to be a case of not judging a book by its cover.

There cannot be any doubt that from the outside it has a good 'pavement' appeal; it has a high degree of location appeal; the views of the surrounding countryside from the cottage are very picturesque, verging almost on beautiful; it has a sense of tranquillity; but you cannot live outside.

On opening the bright red front, stable, door our first impressions of the inside were not too favourable, entering the hall come dining area was dark, cold and uninviting.

Our first task having brought everything from the car was to put the groceries away in the kitchen and have that cup of tea. This task did not lift our level of disappointment. The kitchen is a darker area than the hall. The cleanliness of the kitchen was unsatisfactory, cobwebs, some inhabited, hanging from the walls and below the kitchen cupboards, concrete dust on the work tops from the uncovered stone walls. The tiled floor seemed to be sticky even though it had been moped prior to our arrival. The floor was still wet and the sodden smelly mop was in the kitchen cupboard.

Cobwebs on the wall by the cooker

The groceries that needed to be were put in the refrigerator, not as clean as it should be, but our dry goods could not be put away in a cupboard, remaining on the worktop surface, because the food shelve within the cupboards was full with other peoples leftovers, probably the owner's and previous renters, so no space for the current paying guests. Why does anyone assume that we would want to use their food leavings, that have been there for an indeterminable period of time.

Dust from the walls.

The wall and base cupboards are in a very poor state. The kitchen utensils are basic. I have found that a litmus test of how clean a kitchen is in holiday rentals is the condition of the electric toaster. It failed the test, containing a very large quantity of old and almost mouldy bread crumbs. Another area to consider is the kitchen sink and this lets the property down. The chrome around the drainage hole has almost gone, there is a broken hanging plug chain with the plug missing from the end of it, and there was not a plug to be found anywhere. A badly scratched plastic bowl was provided as a substitute for the missing plug. Would it have taken much to fit a new chain with plug?

Example of cobwebs under kitchen wall cupboards

It is important that a kitchen should be clean and hygienic as food is prepared in it but we did not feel this in the property. It is important that all surfaces should be suitable to be wiped clean but this is not possible because of the exposed brickwork walls, with crumbly pointing, above all the worktops. Would it have taken much to have had a few rows of tiles and a splash back behind the cooker?

concrete dust continually falling on the work tops from the uncovered stone walls

The studio lounge offers a contrast of light, to the hall and kitchen, having two large windows and a pair of patio doors leading to the garden. The furniture is basic, drab, tired, stained and ready for replacement. The views of the garden and countryside beyond do not make up for the lack of comfort.

The bedroom is basic. It has a lack of storage space for clothes with a very small built in wardrobe outside on the landing at the top of the stairs. Given the small window in the room there is insufficient and poorly located lighting.

The final room is the bathroom. This is small and functional with surprisingly a bidet. There is a walk-in shower which completely eliminates any plus points for the room. It is a disgrace for a rental property. The whole installation is very poor.  Some of the floor tiles are cracked, the silicon sealant and grouting is dirty and marked with mould, the shower head is heavily scaled up. The taps, shower connection, and water temperature control were dirty and need considerable attention or replacement. The hanging shelve for shampoos and shower gels was filthy.

On a health and safety matter, we noted that the portable appliances within the property such as kettle, toaster, oil filled radiators, television etc. do not carry a 'Portable Appliance Test' certificate to confirm they are save to be used by the public renting the property.

The design of the property seems to have the objective of creating a chic rustic appearance and atmosphere with comfort. In our opinion it fails drastically in its current state. We get the feeling of run-down, rough, and ready for a well needed refurbishment, to bring it up to standard for a holiday rental cottage. Unfortunately our conclusions, as the week has gone past, are that the inside of the property does not come up to the level of quality that we expected for the rental we have paid. It had not been cleaned properly, it was dirty!

We do not find a multitude of cobwebs, fluff and dust in every room an appealing feature. We left them in-situ for future renters as we did not rent the cottage to be cleaners. Having said this, those items that we used were cleaner when we left, where possible.

Our week long stay in the cottage was a great disappointment. Camp Cottage builds up your hopes with the location and views and then lets you down with a very hard bump when you go inside.

In case any reader might think that we are are exaggerating about the lack of cleanliness, when on our departure we removed the bed linen provided, to help the housekeeper, this is the condition of at least one of the pillows we were supplied with to sleep on; disgusting!

Note: Click on the photos to enlarge.

No lunch at Talgarth Mill

Having seen the Talgarth Mill featured in the BBC 1 series 'Village SOS' on the 10^th August 2011 Natalie and I decided to visit the mill today (Monday 15^th August 2011) with the intention of having lunch in the “Riverside Café serving local seasonal food and drink” and then a tour of the mill.

We would have had lunch, sampling the local produce, except that the Riverside Café is closed on Mondays. During the months of May to September the mill is open daily from 10am to 4pm, according to their publicity leaflet, and we thought, foolishly it turns out, that the café would have been open during these times. Nowhere on the leaflet did it indicate otherwise!

The mill markets itself as a tourist attraction. August is a major tourist month in the United Kingdom. Where is the logic in not having the café open on a Monday when the mill is open? What about bank holidays, is it closed on these days?

We couldn't have lunch in the Riverside Café so we didn't bother to waste any more time or money paying to tour the mill. They not only lost two entrance fees but also payment for two lunches. We were not the only ones to be caught by the closure of the café as we saw other visitors turn and walk away in apparent disappointment.

Note:

Having checked the mill's website on our return to our holiday base it is mentioned that the café is closed on Mondays, but how many people have internet access when on holiday to check on details given in publicity leaflets. I only checked after the event because of my annoyance of having our time wasted.

CoLJ 10 - Lincoln to Camp Cottage.

Last Saturday our first week in Lincoln was over so it was time to travel to the next holiday cottage.

During the week we had checked out a tenant from one of our rental properties, because he had now purchased his own home. We have given a set of keys of the property to our decorator to repaint both the external and internal painted surfaces. Inside it is the usual silk sheen beige for the walls, white for the ceilings and of course brilliant white for all the wood surfaces, except the wood stained window frames. These are to be re-stained both inside and outside. The sun really does play havoc with the external window sills. We always use the same regular reliable suppliers so a set of keys has been given to the flooring suppliers so they can renew all the floor coverings throughout, once the decorator has completed another masterpiece. A total spruce up, including new curtains and lampshades, which we will sort out during our second week in Lincoln at the end of the month, for the next tenant. It is comforting to be able to rely on regular reliable suppliers to carry out the work whilst we're away from Lincoln.

We also visited our other tenanted rental properties to check for any maintenance that is needed.

We vacated the holiday rental by the required 10:00 hrs. The journey to Camp Cottage, our location this week, was, I'm very pleased to say, as hoped for, with only one slight delay, of no major consequence, on the A46 west of Newark where the road is being upgraded to a dual carriageway. A very much needed improvement. No delays on the A42, M42, M5 and M50. There was a large quantity of traffic but this get moving at a reasonable pace. Having called into a local supermarket for fresh provisions we arrived at Camp Cottage in the region of 16:00hrs. Because of the secluded location of the cottage the owner had emailed a hand drawn map to take over from SatNavratilova when the tarmac roads turned to gravel farm lanes and ultimately a field track. It was a good to have my laptop with me to be able to check with the downloaded map. We would not have found the cottage otherwise.

The ornate gates to the drive to the cottage, peeking through the trees in the centre of the photo.

CoLJ 9 - Roman Way to The Conifers

After two weeks at Roman Way, Friday was time to move on to a new holiday cottage location, The Conifers, in Broadholme, near Lincoln.

We left Roman Way at approximately 10:00 hrs. in, we believe, a cleaner state than when we arrived. During our stay we became aware of a few more incidents where the level of cleanliness was not what we had expected. A few more percentage points off the satisfaction scale. Having said that overall it was comfortable and cosy though.

SatNavratilova told us that it should take us about 4 hours driving, and allowing for two, 30 minute, driving breaks be in Lincoln in the region of 15:00 hrs. We finally arrived at 17:15hrs. What she didn't take into consideration was a 30 minute wait to get through the Dartford Tunnel , and she couldn't have foreseen the 90 minutes that we were delayed on the notorious A14 road north of Cambridge due to a serious road accident which caused massive tailbacks of traffic. What was surprising was that our anti-clockwise journey on the dreaded M25, apart from the Dartford section , went far better than we expected. At one time on the A14 we were only 10 miles from the Cambridge services area and 25 minutes later we were still 5 miles from the area. Not a problem in itself except that the Costa coffee medium size café latte we drank earlier was having its affect! What would come first a visit to the services or to a farmers field?