30 April 2012

After Miles and Kimberly left yesterday I finished reading Claire Tomlin’s Charles Dickens: a Life, which I have enjoyed very much indeed. It threw a completely new light on this author who I have enjoyed immensely since doing a paper round, in my early teens, in order to purchase a complete set of his works from a local junk shop. Dickens was a restless soul almost to the point of being manic. If he wasn’t writing a monthly episode of his current book – all, or almost all, of his books were written like that and I think as a result he made considerably more money than he would have done had he sold them initially in a completed bound copy. They sold in staggering numbers anything up to 100,000 copies in the first week.

In between his writing he got involved in a great number of good works, particularly with Miss Coutts (of the family bankers fame) starting homes for fallen women; setting up appeals for the widow of friends or just for friends who fall on hard times: taking on the editorship of various papers, magazines and in between these activities giving a great number of readings from his books, both in this country and America, which were immensely popular. He was constantly falling out with his publishers over money and changed them several times. He enjoyed a fine reputation and was constantly being invited to dinners and celebrations of one sort or another. Even Queen Victoria expressed a desire to meet him to which he had acceded but not with a great deal of enthusiasm.

When the Queen said how very much she would like to hear one of his famous hearings. Dickens answered dryly that he did not give private readings and that was that.

He was much loved by a few friends and the public generally but was not a particularly good parent or friend, his own brother, Fred’s scrounging and fecklessness became intolerable to Dickens and he was cast aside and died penniless and alone. He was an enigmatic character. His own daughter Katie said of him’ I know things about my father’s character that no one else ever knew; he was not a good man, but he was not a fast man, but he was wonderful!’ She said, her buts acknowledged the difficulty of making a definitive moral judgement on him. He did not want any special Memorial and in his Will said’ I rest my claims to the remembrance of my country upon my published works and to the remembrance of my friends upon their experience of me’. He was, however, ultimately buried in Westminster Abbey in an unadorned gravestone with the simple word Dickens on it A fascinating book which I would recommend any Dickens lover to read.

Then I watched an episode of Twenty Twelve, a spoof, on the lines of Yes Minister, covering the run-up to the Olympic Games. Then the six o’clock carer came in to prepare me for bed after which I had my supper and watched something else on television for an hour or so before being hoisted and wheeled into the bedroom. That’s the only drawback in going to bed at 8.30 we really don’t have much of an evening together. So we are hoping that Ross Nursing will be able to change this to 9.00, which will mean we can at least see the end of whatever we are watching on the television.

This routine in my life seems to make the days speed by. My first carers coming at 7. 30 to shower and dress me (I will already have had my breakfast and had a shave). I am then wheeled through and wired up in my study where I spend most of the morning writing this blog and dealing with e-mails and other business. Then the midday carer comes to put me on the commode and deal with any other needs. When the carer’s gone, I encourage’ my lovely’ to sit down for half an hour or so and watch Judge Judy. She invariably falls asleep which is a good thing, bearing in mind her broken nights. After that is time for tea and how quickly time passes before the six o’clock carer comes in to prepare me for bed. Then supper, followed by a very short evening’ s television before I am wheeled through at 8.30 for bed

A typical day in the life of……

Going back to Dickens and his expressed wishes in his Will, the following Living Will may amuse you. Click here to see it.

29 April 2012

Smiler and Kimberly came down today for a sort of belated birthday lunch for Smiler and to collect his presents. We decided to have lunch in the study rather than be dragging through into the breakfast room as Miles and Kimberly had a plan to visit an old friend after lunch, who lived locally. Anyway, […]

28 April 2012]

Another really painful night. I’m sad to say that they sheepskin heel protectors that which I had got excited turned out to be far too small so we will have to change them for larger sizes, if they make them any bigger. I was okay, as I usually am, for the first part of the […]

27 April 2012

My dear boy, Smiler’s birthday. We spoke on the phone and I shall see him at the weekend. I forget what he and Kimberly were going to do to celebrate but when he told me that all sounded very interesting. As result of the uncomfortable night that I had spent with my painful heels,’ my […]

26 April 2012

Another uncomfortable night. I was okay until about 3.00 am and then my heels began to get progressively more painful. I tried moving my feet but without success. So I could not relieve the pressure on the heels. Add to that painful knee joints and some of the time a hip or shoulder and I […]

25 April 2012

I am still waiting for my wheelchair enclosure tickets from Lord’s. I am in a ballot and therefore cannot make any firm arrangements until I know what places I have been allocated. I’ve telephoned Lord’s two or three times over the last month and have been told that they are dealing with the tickets and […]

24 April 2012

Another disappointing Tuesday. No visit to the golf club to see my friends and have lunch. The weather is just too dreary – cold and wet. We expect April showers this month but in between there should be sunshine and a little warmth. The month is almost over and it clearly has not lived up […]

23 April 2012

England’s Saints day, to some, an unofficial bank holiday which they believe should be made official, particularly as we in England seem to have fewer bank holidays than most of the other European countries It is the feast day of St George celebrated by Christian churches. The interesting thing, which I did not know before    , […]

22 April 2012

After putting on this seven-day slow-release pain patch, I had high hopes of a substantial improvement in the reduction of painful joints in bed at night. Sadly, this did not turn out to be the case. However, as Alice says, it might take time for these patches to work, so we will give it a […]

21 April 2012

Not a brilliant night despite the change in my medication. However, Doctor Chris Allen had prescribed some pain patches which Alice had picked up yesterday from Boots the chemist but and forgotten to mention to me. So I did not have the benefit of that patch last night. We asked our carers if they would […]