4 October 2009
Out for a pub lunch at the Barleycorn, Duxford, with my lovely today. Sunny enough to sit outside; so a cigar.
3 October 2009
For those readers who are interested in the progress of my gadgets — an update.
You may recall that I attempted to enlist the help of three knights of the realm who, by virtue of the previous posts they held, were very well connected with the City of London. I say were, because they are now all retired and some of their contacts, no doubt, are only lukewarm if alive at all! My intention had been, that through these three erstwhile City giants, to try to get a personal introduction to a senior director or chairman of an appropriate company who I could try to interested in one or other of my ideas. Having had little or no success with that particular approach, albeit that all three of my friends could not have been kinder or more helpful with their suggestions, I decided on the direct approach myself. After all however ‘important’ the person I contacted was, they couldn’t eat me.
I got onto the Web, found the contact details and telephoned the PA of one of the cleverest inventors in the UK who listened to me and kindly promised to try to get me a brief interview with the great man.
That was a couple of weeks ago. In a follow-up call yesterday she told me that I am still ‘on the list’. So I don’t give up hope. That particular contact was in connection with the feeding frame which is in the most advanced state of all the three ideas — at least it is in its fourth prototype.
The second of my ideas, the bionic gloves, I have decided to try to find someone within the giant GEC organisation. I think that these will be just up their street if I can get to the right person. A big if.
The third idea and perhaps the best of all, I have told very few people about because it is the simplest and easiest to put into production and therefore the most easily copied. This I am pursing through my good friend Peter Southwick and one of his contacts.
So, I have not gone to sleep on any of these ideas. Watch this space!
2 October 2009
A very enjoyable lunch with a past pupil friend, Jon Miller, chewing over old times, at that great little restaurant in Bishopsgate, Boisdale. Clearly it has some history as one reads on their cigar match box:
Dandelion Co Heritage Boisdale 1780
Fetch me a pint wine
Robbie Burns 1780
And on the other side:
Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, sermons and soda water, the day after
Lord Byron 1845
On the way through Liverpool Street Station I had a meeting with Bill Godwin to agree on the division of lectures for the forthcoming visit to China. I was perturbed to learn that Bill has to leave Beijing at midday on Sunday and therefore I will have to manage that last day on my own. I just pray that I am up to it and do not feel totally worn out by the third day.
England got their comeuppance today in South Africa, being soundly thrashed in the quarterfinals, in the World Series, by Australia. England have some serious thinking to do about training their team for future one-day matches.
28 September 2009
A repeat of the Indian Summer days we have enjoyed over the weekend as I walked round the golf course at Worlington. My arms might be giving up but so far my legs are holding out.
It seems that I might have been too pessimistic about England’s prospects in the cricket world series in South Africa. Against all odds they won their first match against Sri Lanka and had a convincing win yesterday against South Africa.
26 September 2009
With the Irish commitment out-of-the-way my thoughts have begun towards the lectures in China and wondering how well I will manage even with the good doctor’s support – certainly, there will be no liquid lunches on those three days!
I suppose I started thinking about this as I sat, in a deckchair, in the warm sunshine, on the most beautiful of early autumn days. Alice had popped up to the shops and I needed to go to the bathroom. It took me the best part of five-minutes to get out of the deckchair – indeed, at one stage I almost gave up and waited for her to return. It was then I realised how weak my arms had become.
This lead me to thinking how, when I was having my shower this morning, I realised that it was becoming increasingly difficult to hold and manipulate the long handled sponge.
I told my lovely, as she dried me, that I would try to hang on until I got back from China, by which time I was pretty sure that she would have to wash me and even perhaps operate my electric razor and toothbrush. Good evidence of the weakening of my arms is that once the wrist support is attached to my right hand it becomes too heavy for me to lift without assistance from the other hand.
25 September 2009
After catching up with my backlog of e-mails I had a home visit from a very nice member of the AbilityNet team – Jodie Parkes. This was so much more satisfactory than the ‘remote assist’ telephone conference which I had previously. Jodie was very quickly able to assess my limitations and future needs.
He was able to recommend an updated laptop with a much larger ram and the next version of my voice activation programme, Dragon Preferred 10, with which he assured me I will be able to do much more than with my present version, particularly, as he is also recommending a gooseneck microphone which he tells me is far more sensitive, and less directionally dependent, then the one built-in to my present laptop.
I gave Jodie the vertical lever mouse to return to AbilityNet, which frankly I had never really used. He also took away the Sony E-reader as he is going to try to have this replaced with one of the more sophisticated Kindle e-reader, coming out towards the end of this year.
What is so amazing about all of this is that AbilityNet will purchase and give me this equipment, on permanent loan as long as I live, at absolutely no cost to me. How different from the government social services where one is mean tested for almost anything other than the most basic piece of equipment. What an amazing charity. I must see what I can do for them, at some stage.
24 September 2009
Fortunately I recovered overnight and awoke reasonably refreshed and after a hearty breakfast we set off to explore Trinity College University and the 20th-Century paintings at the National Gallery which my lovely was particularly keen to see. On the way she very kindly bought me a beautiful pale lemon Donegal tweed waistcoat.
There was a panic search at the hotel for my mobile phone which, in the event, turned out to have never left the security tray at Stansted Airport. Fortunately the airport authorities were able to locate us by the home number in the telephone.
After a light lunch we caught the early evening flight home.
23 September 2009
Alice and I flew to Dublin today for me to give the Ken McQuillan Memorial Address to the Irish Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
We stayed in an extremely comfortable hotel, the Radisson Royale, and were wonderfully looked after, throughout the visit by our hosts. Rather too well, as it turned out at lunchtime, when my old friend, barrister Michael Stimpson kindly invited us to the St. Stephen’s Hibernian Club.
Fortunately, I recovered sufficiently to deliver the address, for which I had been invited but that, and the effort of delivering a paper a little longer than an hour, in combination with my medication, meant that I was unable to enjoy the dinner with the committee afterwards. In the event, apparently the feedback was that the talk went reasonably well although the jokes were not received as enthusiastically as they might well have been at a dinner where the guests would have been in a more amenable frame of mind.
21 September 2009
The City Branch of the Arbitration Club lunch today. This one at the offices of Clifford Chance’s in Bishopsgate, so not too far to travel from Liverpool Street Station. Although I enjoy these lunches I am not sorry that this present round is coming to an end as they are not doing much good to my waistline.
Today the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) published guidelines on Assisted Suicide. These are for consultation only, at this stage, and are expected be published around the end of the year. Although I have not seen these guidelines myself I gather the gist of them is that a person who assists another to commit suicide who it is, for example terminally ill or in great pain, is unlikely to be prosecuted. There will be clear protection built in for the vulnerable elderly and mentally ill. Public opinion seems to be strongly in favour of such new legislation or guidelines.
Today, in recognition of the success of this blog (around 65,000 hits to-date) I dropped ‘MND’ from the title, shortening it to ‘Dying to Live’.
This is because the blog has obviously appealed to people far beyond those suffering from MND and I would like to think that it would help anyone who is terminally ill, suffering from a long-term illness, or just depressed. Perhaps the anecdotes or the jokes might momentarily cheer them up. To this end I have added a P.S. to the introduction to this blog and, as I doubt whether people will read this introduction more than once, I’ve decided to repeat it in the content of today’s entry. What I’ve also suggested is that if people find this blog supportive in any way, either as a patient or as a carer, then why not pass it on to their own group of friends in the hope that someone, somewhere may benefit from it.
To lighten things up after this serious note I have added two new jokes – The Bounced Cheque and The Loving Husband.
20 September 2009
To East Dulwich for lunch with Chloe, Karl and the grandchildren. Managed to walk the mile or so from London Bridge to Liverpool Street station without too much effort.
England managed to scrape an unconvincing win in the seventh of the one-day series against Australia, mainly due to Swann’s 5 for 28 – one win out of seven does not auger well for the World Series in South Africa next year.
D. Mark Cato
D. Mark Cato