Chaos

Went to optician in Parkstone. Vision all 10/10.

No radicchio at Makkah nearby - disappointing. Popped into Waitrose. Lots of sirens going and blue lights flashing past

Turned out there was a fire under the ground. And man-hole covers exploding (luckily no-one hurt). So road to West of Waitrose closed. We then discovered local buses were all being diverted (some unnecessarily) on another route.

Queue at the bus stop grew longer and longer. Poor blind chap standing with suitcase had no idea.what do. So I found him a bench. Then a small local bus came by and the driver said there would be no buses at all going into town from that stop and that we would have to walk about a kilometre around the corner to catch one.

Luckily while discussing what to do with blind chap, we spotted an elusive bus coming our way. So Mr B made sure there was space on the bus while I accompanied 'G' (we exchanged names). to the bus. Thank heavens as otherwise we would have had a long slow walk to find a bus!

I had a long chat with G. He lost sight in one eye suddenly some years ago, and then the second one went. He said he could cope normally, but he's having a problem as he had a new computer a year ago and was unable to set up on his own and was finding it difficult to get help. I called my pal M who is well up in Dorset Blind Society.and she gave G advice on who to call to help.

Stopped off for an Aspall In Westbourne, before returning home. Then wrote a couple of difficult emails I've been working on for a few days – that's a weight of my mind.

Courtesy of Bournemouth Echo
"AN UNDERGROUND fire sent manhole covers “flying into the air,” prompting a major emergency response, a road closure and power outages.

Mansfield Road, just off Ashley Road in Parkstone, was cordoned off following the incident, which caused manhole covers to be launched “one metre into the air,” with “flames coming out the ground”.

***+++++, who witnessed the incident, said: “We were outside The Victoria pub on Ashley Road, then all of a sudden there were two explosions, which were really loud.

“Two manhole covers blew off about a metre into the air and there were flames coming out of the ground.”

She added: “Luckily no one was injured. A man jumped out of his car and told a woman to get out of the way, so she wouldn’t be hit.”