6 November 2011

Well, we survived Guy Fawkes’ night without mishap avoiding any spent rockets landing on our thatched roof, this despite various local bonfire and firework parties going on in adjacent, or near adjacent, properties. We were fairly relaxed this year as we had 19 cm of rain, (which would have thoroughly soaked the thatch) last night, which was about the same quantity that we had received in this part of the world over the past six months.

I had another virtually pain-free night, last night which is marvellous.

The good Dr thinks it could possibly be something to do with the cortisone injection in my shoulder plus the miniscule amount of cortisone in the eye drops and I’m taking every day since the cataract operation. Certainly I will mention this to Dr Mark, the pain consultant at Papworth Hospital when I see him in a couple of weeks time..

Our good Dr. Michael was up and away early morning, back to Sweden this time, after we had a final chat over a cup of coffee. His little car in Sweden was parked out in the open for the past week and he could find some difficulty in getting it to start. At least once he gets it going. he knows he will be safer on the road, then he would be in this country when it snows. The reason for this is that, under Swedish law, all motorists must fit snow tyres to their vehicles from the beginning of September. Contrast this country when it snows, all hell lets loose. We always seemed to run out of salt and grit for the roads, railways freeze up, causing chaos to the commuters and you take your life in your hands on the roads for the lunatics who drive even faster ignoring black ice.

Paul ‘the computer’ spent a couple of hours with me the early afternoon whilst ‘my lovely’ went off to the local farm shop. By the results. I’ve been having over the last couple of days. I think the idea of cleaning the hard disk and reinstalling the programmes in combination with upgrading Microsoft Office 2010 from Home/Student to Office Professional, might well have done the trick, although it can still take me half a dozen attempts, or more, to log onto a functioning Dragon and then, after that I sometimes can leave it on all day without it freezing up (not responding) as it did previously. Still no word from Nuance despite my rather pathetic appeals mentioning my severe disability limited life expectancy. Maybe they will sit up and take notice, when they hear from the Trading Standards officer.

We experienced one of the worst road accidents. we have suffered in this country for many years, on Guy Fawkes night. Sadly, there was a 20 car pileup on the M5 motorway resulting in the death of seven people with a further 50 injured, some of them very severely. The first car apparent that drove into the back of a stationary lorry on the hard shoulder. It is thought that it might have been the result of smoke drifting across the motorway from an adjacent Guy Fawkes’ bonfire, part of a firework party organised by the local rugby club. It is easy to see what might have happened. The first car plunging into dense black smoke would have braked suddenly breaking and the others, probably travelling to close behind piled into it, one after the other, with the tragic circumstances. I have described. I wonder if the government introduced legislation making it unlawful to light a bonfire within 100 m of a motorway or class A road, it would have averted such accident. Having said that, would such legislation be practicable. bearing in mind that there would be very few domestic dwellings where you could observe this restriction.

5 November 2011

Guy Fawkes’ Day. Gunpowder, treason and plot and all that. The day we dread most in the yearly calendar due to living in a house with a thatched roof. Any carelessly pointed rocket could end up on the roof with its contents still smouldering, and hey presto, a lovely house would go up in flames. […]

4 November 2011

I heard, during the night, on the BBC World Service, that the Greek Prime Minister has changed his mind about the referenda, I’ve no doubt under political pressure. I think it is felt that there will be a vote of confidence mounted shortly and he will probably go and a general election called. In any […]

3 November 2011

My lovely’ left for London early this morning. She got me up onto the edge of the bed drinking my early morning tea and then handed me over to the good Dr. Mick is well used to looking after me as he did so, single-handedly, in Sweden. In fact ,he’s just about the only civilian […]

2 November 2011

Capitalism in Crisis . The motto adopted by the protesters camping on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral. Hallo there! Do you think the rest of us are asleep and not aware that capitalism is in crisis? The finance ministers from the countries in the developed world have been scratching their heads now for two […]

1 November 2011

Last night was Halloween butt we were not plagued with ghosts or ghoulies orthe local children knocking on the door offering’ tririck or treat’. Alice had a goodly provision of chocolate biscuits and other goodies to hand out in case we had our usual visit and we opted for ‘treat’. but, this year,they left us […]

31 October 2011

The day of my cataract operation has arrived. I left home this morning at around 11, complete with my two respirator masks, not knowing whether they would be able to carry out the procedure or not. It was all about lying flat for 30 min or so and their being able to work around the […]

30 October 2011

Carla came in at 7.00 this morning, instead of unusual 7.30, fundamentally to assist Alice in getting me to a sitting position on the edge of the bed without either pulling all my weight on one arm on or straining her. I think we may well make this a new routine. One carer coming in […]

29 October, 2011

Another busy day. I spent the first three or four hours struggling with the voice activation systems . First, the Windows 7 version until I became too frustrated at having to remember the different commands and then I switched back to Dragon, which, amazingly, behaved very well and allowed me to get most of today’s […]

28 October 2011

Today was the scheduled visit to the Arthur Rank Hospice in Cambridge. The object of the visit was to discuss two problems. One, the overnight pain. I have been suffering in my joints and secondly, the wind problem I have in my stomach. Dr Margaret Saunders had pulled out all the stops and I was […]