16 April 2012
Another bright and sunny Tuesday, ideal for a trip to the golf club for the geriatric golf, except that the temperature, at best is going to reach 13°C with the threat of rain, which apart from anything else would drop the temperature by around 5°C. Clearly, it is not the day for me to visit the club. We have been fortunate so far in avoiding catching any infection from my carers or visitors, over the past two winters, so it would be crazy to risk it just when summer is upon us.
Talking of possible infections I had another choking session last evening. A tiny bit of salmon or salad’ went down the wrong way’ and I coughed and coughed with Alice beating my back with a vengeance. This went on for the best part of two hours. At one stage, we really did think it might be necessary to call for a paramedic to sort me out as there was no way that I could possibly have gone to bed with the respirator covering my face with this irritating blockage in my windpipe. In fact, ‘my lovely’ was quite prepared to sleep in her chair in the study if I had to stay sitting up. Fortunately after a great deal of effort I managed to dislodge whatever it was and calmed down again so that now the time I was due to go to bed there was no residual affect on my breathing. I really don’t and why I have these on choking fits as I understood from the MND assessment team that to-date it does not appear that my throat has yet been affected.
Paul’ the computer’ came to babysit a while Alice was out for a couple of hours today, standing in for ‘Jane the sheep’ who has caught a bug which she does not want to pass on to me.
It did give Paul and I an opportunity to further the idea of linking my laptop to the television and improve my voice link to my music library. I was particularly pleased with one macro command that we managed to add which allows me to move from headphones to my speakers (Bose) and vice versa just by voice, which may be handy, when I lose the use of my hand. We are now working on finding a particular composer or piece of music, again by voice only.
At around 12.30 today my old friend Brian Osborne came to lunch, with his 17-year-old daughter Kate, of whom I have grown very fond. She recently returned from a stint in Uganda with one of these youth overseas organisations. Kate and her friend spent some time in a village school, in the bush, teaching young children some simple reading and writing and to sing songs which they seem to enjoy more than anything. Kate, is one of those splendid young people who learned early on to put back something into society. In this instance, giving up part of her gap year before commencing university. She brought with her a large number of photographs and video clips of her time there. The children instantly fell in love with her and she with them. A good example to other young people.
I say came to lunch, it would be more correct to say that they brought their own lunch and another for me too. Smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches (my favourite) and a delicious quiche. They had strict instructions not to stay too long as it tires me out. With so many restrictions I wonder why people bother to come at all!
‘My lovely’ went out shopping leaving Paul ‘the computer’s ostensibly in charge. I persuaded him to wheel me into the breakfast room so I could have smoke whilst looking at Kate’s interesting pictures of her trip In any event, it is lovely to see them both again as I got to know the family very well as they invited me to use their day house in London, as a staging post, on my way to Heathrow airport, for many of my overseas trips, particularly if I had an earlier flight. So, over the years I have got to know the whole family very well. Nancy, Brian the twins, Kate and Tom and older sister Anne.
Dear Anne could not be with us and instead sent a charming newsy card. There are a very close-knit family and take great interest in what their siblings are doing and I know there admire the work that Kate did in going to Uganda. Sorry not to see Kate’s twin brother Tom and mum Nancy who had other things to do apart, from the fact that so many people would tire me out more quickly. Anyway, I happy interlude.
As this is normally my geriatric golf day and Brian was my old golfing partner I invite him and another reader interested in golf to Click here for the 10 best caddie responses .
15 April 2012
I had a relatively pain-free night, having gone to bed at 9.40. Maybe this is something to do with the slow-release painkiller (tramadol). There does not seem to be very much rhyme or reason why one night should be so much worse than the next. I will discuss this with my MND team next week during my quarterly assessment.
At last, after all the hullabaloo over the past two or three weeks we have reached the actual centenial date of the sinking of The Titanic. There have been some fascinating documentary films on the subject, some of which incorporated original material. Our treat this afternoon was to watch the original film, starring Kenneth More entitled A Night to Remember. Although this was undoubtedly more authentic than the later more modern version starring the Leo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet which was was essentially a fabricated love story, I must confess the latter version I found more moving. Another moving event was the special service at held on board on one of today’s ocean liners, chartered for the purpose, to anchor over the wreck below. The passengers were made up largely from the descendants from the original voyage and although it was 100 years since the tragedy, the odd tear could be seen rolling down the cheek of both young and old. I think we have had our fill of the Titanic for the time being and, no doubt, the recent spate of memorabilia, by way of films, replica April 15, 1912 newspapers etc will now subside, as did the ship on that fateful night exactly 100 years ago
It seems ridiculous to go from such a massive event as the sinking of The Titanic to my comfort in sitting on an inflated cushion but that is the nature of this blog. The newly inflated Roho cushion passed its first test. It was certainly more comfortable at the end of the evening than any other cushion I have sat on all day, in the past. I think the problem is that you can adjust the air pressure to suit a particular sitting position, for example, sitting upright in a wheelchair, but as soon as you start to raise your feet to a horizontal position in a lounge chair the pressure points change and the cushion becomes less comfortable. However, I still think I can slightly improve upon it, so will have little more air let out today and see if I can improve it even further. In the meantime I have e-mailed to the company, who market these cushions, in their hope that their local rep. might pop in, and use his expertise, to adjust the inflation to its optimum
The cyst on my arm, for which a hospital appointment has been made at the end of this month, to have it cut out, seems to have subsided to such a point where I do not believe it will be necessary to go to hospital. I have asked the district nurse to come in and confirm this before cancelling the appointment.
As I have nothing remotely associated with The Titanic in my media library I might just as well go from the sublime to the ridiculous. Click here to see what happens when the debris from a man-made satellite plunges to the earth. be sure to watch this on full screen .
14 April 2012
The day of the Grand National. England’s most famous race over hurdles. It’s the one day of the year when millions of people, who would not normally have bet on a horse, will consider having a flutter. (‘My lovely’ too, it transpired after the race!) Apparently, through the medium of television, the race is watched by over 600 million people worldwide) Knowing nothing about horseracing, or the form of the horses, the majority of people will choose a horse whose name they like or a name that has some sort of connection with them. For example there are several horses from one stable which incorporate the name Cato. In fact, I think had I backed these from the first time out, I will be handsomely in pocket.
Today’s race was run in bright sunlight, on a beautiful spring day with the going a little soft. It is the toughest steeplechase race in the world and each year it is run there are usually a number of casualties. For example 40 started the race and only 15 finished. It was won literally by a whisker, a 33 to 1 outsider and was probably the closest finish ever, although there have been one or two dead heats in the past. Sadly, two horses had to be destroyed having broken their leg. The vet explained that there was absolutely nothing they could do about the horse with a broken leg so the kindest thing they could do is to dispatch it quickly before the horse started feeling pain. Beyond the mere matter of a beautiful animal being destroyed, one of them, Synchronised had also won the Cheltenham Gold cup, a few weeks ago – generally considered to be the jewel in the Crown of the jumping season -, so was rather special as he was one of the great horses and this made the matters so much worse. (Even worse for the punter who bet £50,000 on this horse to win!) Being a horse lover, like so many people’ my lovely’ cannot bear to watch the actual race in case of accidents such as that of today and she feels that the fences should be lowered to eliminate, so far as possible, the likelihood of accident. This proposal would not attract a great deal of support amongst the racing community. The adrenaline flows as these magnificent beasts struggle against each other using every nerve in the body, to overcome the obstacles, and win the race.
The government are currently in the throes of redefining marriage to include members of the same sex. A great number of people feel very strongly that marriage is a union between a man and a woman and the definition should not be changed. Accordingly, there is a petition which those people who feel strongly about this can sign.
The petition reads “I support the legal definition of marriage which is a voluntary union for the life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others, I oppose any attempt to redefine it”
I should make it clear that this is in no way meant to be a criticism of two people of the same sex living together but what the petitioners object to is this being called marriage.
Ctrl +Click on the link below to see more about this petition and a form that you can sign.
http://www.c4m.org. if you feel strongly about it.
Paul,’ the computer’, came round this afternoon and we spent a couple of hours working out to macro commands, using Dragon, for my music centre. I am now able to switch from the speakers, to the headphones without the need to plug or un-plug anything. This was more complicated than it sounds but is just the sort of thing I must do in preparation for the day when I will not even be able to use the one splinted finger that I have, at present, with which I can press a key.
Talking of complicated commands, click here and imagine what really complicated commands he would have to give if you were flying this space shuttle, Discovery.
13 April 2012
Yesterday, I mentioned the standing hoist and as I get weaker my face gets dangerously close to the crossbar. As a result we have modified this by strapping a small pillow to this bar. We also found the front of the foot stand rather sharp and hard on the soles of one’s feet when the hoist was being dragged away. Accordingly, we have glued a piece of rubber pipe casing on this sharp edge which has made a great difference. It struck me yesterday that the manufacturers of this excellent hoist might be interested in incorporating these two modifications. I gave them a ring and left my telephone number. However, as they did not ring back – they probably thought I was trying to sell them something – I shall e-mail these suggestions to them.
Today, I received a copy of the consultant’s report following my recent visit to Papworth hospital. Apart from noting a drop in my vital capacity, which he describes as.’a slight drop to previously‘ (whereas I was convinced it was a serious drop, from 49% to 31% ), Doctor Michael Davies summed it up by saying, ‘I’m actually pleased with his progress’ which is all very encouraging, particularly as they do not feel it necessary for me to a further assessment earlier than the normal three months.
Today, three members of the Arbitration Club came down to give us lunch at the Cricketers; Winifred Potter, Hon. Treasurer; Martin Potter, Hon. Sec. and Keith Kirkwood. The fourth member who was due to join us was John Rushton, one of our vice presidents, that he suddenly developed a nasty cold and very considerately pulled out at the last minute, as in those I have to avoid catching cold. It was a lovely lunch and good to catch up with the Arbitration Club news. Winifred, very generously, bought Alice a dozen pink roses. I think they all appreciate that I really wouldn’t be able to function without her and like to acknowledge it.
Readers may recall me mentioning the special pressure cushion with which I have been supplied for my lounge chair. It is cleverly designed to fill a series of vertical cells with air and, then by sitting on it, push out the air from the pressure points, thus achieving the effect of ‘sitting on a soft cushion’. At least that’s what their advertising claims. Although the area manager, very kindly called in last week to adjust this cushion I think we left the air valve open and each time I have sat on it squeezed out a little more air until yesterday, after a few hours, it became very uncomfortable.
As this cushion is advertised for £675 it must be rather special, so I e-mailed the company again and asked if they could kindly get the local representative to drop in and and adjust it for maximum comfort.
Today, my good friend Julian Critchlow, was kind enough to send me an amusing and brilliantly written piece on the history of the Buttonhole, written by one of his partners, Nick Storey, which he has submitted for publication in The Field. Nick suggests that habit of men wearing a flower in the buttonhole has virtually died out today. I reminded Nick that I wore a rose, from my own garden, in my buttonhole from the beginning of May until Christmas Eve (I got my tailor to make the buttonhole lower than the standard buttonhole and a little wider to accommodate the stem). I also told him that when seatbelts were introduced I wrote to The Times, on St George’s Day, complaining that I could not wear a seatbelt without crushing my rose and did they think I should apply for dispensation which was allowed for pregnant women and some other classes of people, which I cannot recall
Click here to read about an enterprising young man who should go far.
12 April 2012
I received an e-mail, yesterday afternoon from Doctor Margaret Saunders, who runs the Arthur Rank hospice. She was the person who made the original consultation with the pain doctor, Mark Abrahams from Addenbrookes, so she had a vested interest in trying to find a solution. She has discussed this with Joanna Sassons, my MND coordinator at Addenbrookes, and they will try to come up with some alternative painkiller.
We have been attempting for some weeks to change our commode for what I call a male model. Instead of just a small round hole in the seat it has one which is keyhole shaped. I needn’t go into details but this is clearly more satisfactory from a man’s point of view. Alice was running out of patience and telephoned our OT yesterday and was astonished to be told that there had been some delay as it is being specially made. I really cannot believe this is as it must be a very normal piece of equipment used hundreds of times every day in every hospital in the land. In they don’t produce one soon I will take the matter up myself.
We have two hoists, one called a standing hoist and the other which uses a sling. So far we have managed perfectly well on the standing hoist but as my legs and become weaker and weaker I find myself hanging from my arms which themselves are weak and, as a result, find myself slumping dangerously on this hoist with my face close to the metal crossbar. I know that the time is near when we will have to use the sling hoist. The only problem with that being that you must have two carers just to get you into the sling and then to lower you into your chair or bed. I have resisted this so far because acknowledging that I require the sling hoist is just another nail in my coffin. When we moved over to the sling hoist it will need a review of our continuing care time to cover the second carer. However, I gather that is a formality once you are in the scheme.
Doreen ‘ the secretary’ came in to do some filing although as I discard almost everything that comes into the post these days I cannot imagine what it is she finds to file. Although to be fair she also checks my bank statements and writes out cheques for my bills etc.
As my diaphragm gets weaker and I cannot project my voice as easily from there, it has become very squeaky and high pitched and as a result I make more mistakes in my dictation. Dragon is still pretty good at recognising the changes in my annunciation, as the more I use it the more it learns the new way I say things.
The situation in Syria has become so urgent now that the United Nations are taking an interest and insisted on a cessation of hostilities by today. Presumably, if President Assad fails to comply the UN will have to consider sending in NATO troops to prevent further massacring of the opposition. Heaven knows how many Syrians have died so far in opposition to this tyrant but whatever happens I cannot see that Assad can continue as dictator.
I have been dying to use this following video clip, entitled why you do not want to marry an Italian. Click here to see why!
11 April 2012
I had another miserable night after the initial sleep, waking around midnight, with painful joints. First one and then the other until around 4 a.m it was quite severe but, although I clicked the alarm twice during the night, I did so only 10 min or so before ‘my lovely’ was due down to turn me over. What a blessing when she arrives, I believe that it is rarely more than half an hour or so. I e-mailed Doctor Mark Abrahams, the pain consultant at Addenbrookes, after the last fiasco of the so-called telephone consultation. I spelt it out in in clear terms so I hope he comes up with something fairly positive soon.
We have had some difficulty now over the past few weeks for Ross nursing to provide a carer at nine o’clock. They can manage 8.30 and 9.30. Frankly, by 9.30 most evenings I am like a zombie-my jug of energy being completely empty. Having said that I do not really want to spend any longer in bed because of the pain and for that reason rejected the offer of 8.30, however, after the last few miserable nights I have agreed to give 8.30 a trial run for a month. So long as I can sleep that little bit longer and do not require an extra turn or find myself lying there in pain for longer periods, then we may settle for the earlier bedtime.
Readers might well remember that, some time ago, (see 23rd February 2012 entry) after the Smedley suicide in Dignitas Switzerland. I propounded the idea of a programme which explained the working of Hospices, the purposes of which is frequently misunderstood as being a place where you, to die. I put the idea to the producer of the original programme, Craig Hunter, who took the matter up with the BBC. When it was initially suggested, the BBC did not reject the idea out of hand,. Although I have chased him up as he has not heard anything it doesn’t look too promising
Why I mention this at this stage is because they main reason for the original television programme was that the author, Sir Terry Pratchett, had been diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s, and knowing how his mind would eventually go, wanted to be informed about the possibility of assisted suicide whilst he was of sound mind. I had never read any of Sir Terry’s books but, yesterday afternoon, after I’d finished my blog and e-mails etc I watched a film, Going Postal, a fantasy drama, based on one of Terry Pratchett’s books of the same name. There were elements of it which reminded me of the Harry Potter films.
Without knowing anything of the background, had I been told that this author had written the Harry Potter stories and that Going Postal, was one of his early works when he was a young man, I would have believed them. Anyone who has access to Sky Films could check this out for themselves and see if they agree. I would love to know whether I was the only one to make this possible connection.
Click here for a bit of fantasy of my own
10 April 2012
I sacrificed my visit to the golf club today for a visit from somebody who rang me last week but from whom I had failed to make a note. In the event there was no visitor and no telephone call. Maybe I’m going a little dippy and imagined the whole thing! In any event, the five-day forecast showed black clouds and rain, a maximum temperature of 8° and a chilly wind. As I sit here and look through my study window the sun shines on what appears to be a glorious day so, once again, I should not trust the weatherman but make up my own mind on the morning I would normally go to the golf club.
Then tomorrow we have a day of free from visitors. On Thursday, Doreen ‘the secretary’ comes.Then on Friday four of the Arbitration Club committee are coming down to give me lunch at the Cricketers. As Alice says they probably think I am on my last legs and had better come down and see me whilst the going is good. Although I am weakening all the time I suspect this will not be the last time they come down for lunch.
I had a lovely long e-mail letter from Johannesburg, from two old friends from the past who were working with us 50 years ago in Arabia. They will shortly be celebrating their golden wedding anniversary, beating us by 10 months. They were a lovely young couple whose company we enjoyed and it is so good to catch up with old friends.
I was glad to receive an e-mail from the good Doctor Michael in Australia who only made a passing reference to Tom at the end of the e-mail. This was good news as his treatment appears to be going the right way. As Michael says ‘overall a good report.’. The rest of the e-mail was rather like a report from my personal physician. He first all dealt with the cyst which was more squeezing than cutting but as I’m due to go to the hospital in a few days time I think I will have to leave it to the surgeon there. Michael then went on to deal with weight loss and pain control. It’s good to have these little separate reports to show my team as Michael is with me 24 hours a day and observes things that the doctors and support team could not in the short periods of consultation. Of course, we have to very politely offer these notes on the basis they might be helpful and that in no way are we attempting to circumvent that consultant’s own experience.
I am well into Claire Tomalin’s book on the Charles Dickens – A Life. which is easy reading and a fascinating insight into this restless workaholic, He was always coming up with grandiose ideas for theatricals, personal readings, clubs for the unfortunates, starting new newspapers or magazines and so on, this on top of producing a chapter a month of whichever book or books he was writing at the time. He seemed to have a prestigious amount of energy and had an amazing following and typically, for example, sold one hundred thousand copies of the Christmas Carol, I seem to recall, in the first month. (Most of his books were written by monthly instalments). He was a ‘tour de force’ and immensely popular, both here and in the US although he seemed plagued, throughout his life, by a shortage of money which led him constantly to question whether or not even get a better deal by switching to another publisher.
Relationships with the Americans went sour over the lack of international copyright and, although they lauded him wherever he went, the American press was not at all sympathetic about his copyright complaint and accused him of ‘ingratitude and greed’ . As part of the bi-centenary of his birth, the Museum of London have an exhibition, Dickens and London, which I would love to go to.
I can think of no more appropriate way of finishing this entry than this imposing picture of the Niagara Falls, in 1911, the year they froze to a standstill. Dickens visited these falls twice and, on one of his American trips, spent 10 days there, and said of them, “It would be harder for man to stand nearer to God then he does here” Click here.
9 April 2012
Easter Monday, is traditionally a Bank Holiday. For the shopaholics, who complained bitterly that they were not allowed to shop on Easter Sunday, it means that they can now satisfy their urge go shopping for ‘bargains’ – how sad! In our case there was still the Arts and Craft Exhibition in the village hall which might satisfy some people. Incidentally, I was reminded that, we have not had a hot cross bun over this Easter break and so, I got, ‘‘my lovely” to toast one for me at tea time and smother it with Peter ‘the garden’ mother’s raspberry jam. Ever since she discovered my love of raspberries she has very kindly sent me a jar every year since.
We were ‘confined to barracks’ today as much by the miserable weather is anything else. In any event, we were expecting two visitors this morning for coffee. My regular readers may recall Barry and Denise who took me down to Cornwall last May for the wedding of my niece, Augusta, and a week or so after our return Barry was rushed into hospital and underwent some serious surgery on his back. Naturally, at the time we thought that lifting me from the car to the wheelchair, plus other transfers, may have been the cause of his problem. Fortunately it turned out that it was nothing to do with us but something which had been building up for sometime. Coming from a time when he was virtually paralysed Barry has made a miraculous recovery and continues his taxi service. As we were one of his best clients, it was nice of him, and his wife Denise, to arrange to drop in and see us over this Easter holiday. Sadly, Barry rang up at the last minute to say that they had both woken up with streaming colds and under the circumstances did not think it was very wise to come and see me. People are very considerate like that as an infection in my lungs could turn into pneumonia and carry me off. So, we left it that we would make a new arrangement when they were both better.
Immediately after lunch Paul ‘the computer’ came round for a couple of hours. We worked out a couple of macro commands to make life easier for me and worked our way through the shortlist of other problems which have cropped up from time to time. Silly things like losing the icons in the taskbar, or the bottom tray which I tend to call it, which I now know, can be recovered by pressing F11. Another thing that I’ve always had problem is with getting Times New Roman 12 as a default font in the various programmes; Word; Outlook; DragonPad and so on. Windows 7 is an extremely sophisticated programme which most users, including me, do not begin to exploit anyway near its full potential. Another thing I was keen to do was to change one or two or of the standard icons into something more suggestive of its purpose.
Heard from the good Doctor Michael that son Tom – who was recently diagnosed with multiple myeloma – is responding well to treatment, which is a great relief to us all.
That reminded me of a joke I received the other day entitled Sick Leave. Not one of the funniest I received to date but probably worth a chuckle. Click here and see if you agree.
8 April 2012
I think we have cracked the night pain, for the time being anyway, until I speak to the pain consultant. We have reverted to including the paracetamol-2000 m.g – and this seems to hold off the severe pain long enough between being turned every couple of hours.
A pretty miserable day. So far as the weather is concerned – chilly and damp, and not very enticing for a pleasant country walk -, which is rather bad luck for the Arts and Crafts Fair, which takes place every year in Claiming village hall to which they add a large marquee. The standard of art, when we first arrived here, 45 years or so ago, was pretty amateurish but it has improved year by year until there are some really professional exhibitors, making it well worth while visiting. The weather, as I say, was not very enticing but I was surprised to learn from nephew Tom Grand, that the young had all been swimming in Cornwall. You would have been hard-pressed to get me into the sea in the height of summer in this country but then this Cornish side of the family have always been a hardly lot
Under normal circumstances I certainly would have slipped down for an hour or so duly Arts and Craft Exhibition but the wheelchair amongst the crowds of people looking at the pictures would have been very awkward. Instead, this turned out to be our quietist day over this Easter break. No guests and a chance to catch up on one of two things. Above all, it gave ‘my lovely ‘a real break of which she was in real need.
We spent a fair proportion of a thoroughly lazy day watching an old favourite film of ours. Lawrence of Arabia. Having met and subsequently spent almost 5 years in Arabia the settings for this film held a number of happy memories for us. Then, as if we had not done enough oggling at the screen. there was compulsive viewing of the Masters golf at the famous Augusta club in the states. Sadly our boys did not shine this year and it was won by Bubba Watson, someone I must admit I had not seen play before. Even Alice seemed fascinated by the golf despite not knowing the difference between a boggy and a birdie. It reminded me of my dear mother-in-law, who in the early days of television was quite content to watch snooker in black-and-white! However, we were a little more fortunate than that and saw the beautifully manager Augusta course looking its best. It’s very therapeutic and easy to doze to.
Recently it was announced that the government are considering setting up a Department which will be able to hack into everybody’s e-mails and mobile telephone calls. The object being, of course, to be alerted about possible terrorist attacks. However, you can imagine that there has been a storm of protest about the introduction of this intrusion into privacy. I think it has some time to run before the government will achieve the necessary majority to push this legislation through.
Under these circumstances, what more appropriate than seeing what it would be like riding in the American U 2 spy plane. Click here for an amazing flight
7 April 2012
Due to on-going problems with Google the domain where my site is located has been hacked into again. This means that all websites associated with this host can have their hits redirected for this site to site of the hackers choice, usually a commercial one. It is therefore important that, for the time being at least, you DO NOT USE GOOGLE SEARCH to open this blog. Instead type www.dmarkcato.com directly into your web browsers address bar at the top left-hand corner of your desktop window. You could also add this blog to your favourites or even put an icon on your desktop; both would avoid you opening a corrupt site. This is the fourth time this hacker has had a go at this domain and hopefully my Webmaster would be able to put sufficiently security items in place to avoid it happening again.
With the family gone and just Chloe, we were able to spend a very peaceful morning together. She helped me sort out some of the update pages for the blog and also my tickets, for various people, who I have invited to Lord’s this year.
The media is full of The Titanic – the largest and most luxurious ship afloat – as it was in April 1912, when this ‘unsinkable’ ship, on its maiden voyage , a struck an iceberg, which made a gash, halfway along one side, causing five of the nine watertight compartments to flood, with the inevitable result that the ship eventually sank. The loss of life was around 1500 with a little more than 700 saved. On this anniversary, old rivalries have been resurrected and blame attributed to various people who have long since departed this life and are unable to defend themselves. I think I am right in saying that there is still one person alive, who was actually saved or so she was or two ago, having been a baby at the time of the disaster
A modern time disaster occurred today. It was the 158th. Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge. Oxford was the bookies favourite but the two boats went side-by-side to the halfway mark with scarcely a quarter of the boat between them. At that point some idiot, seeking publicity against Elitism appeared in the River virtually under the Oxford oars. The race was stopped and restarted at exactly the halfway point. Within a few yards, however, the Oxford boat got to close to the Cambridge boat and there was a clash of all is which broke off the blade of one of the Oxford crew. After that it was a one horse race with Cambridge creaming his way home unchallenged. The Oxford cox raised her hand challenging the referee’s decision but he was quite clear that the fault clearly lay with the Oxford boat and therefore the decision stood with Cambridge coming out as the winners.
We seem to have been utterly spoiled this Easter with a dozen or so Easter cards and some very nice Easter presents; a simnel traditional cake from Jane’ that sheep’. This marzipan covered fruit cake was traditionally given as a gift at Easter. This one had the 11 egg-shaped around-ran the edge, one for each of the 12 disciples except Judas. In addition, we were given a lovely bunch of flowers and a box of genuine Turkish delight from Jane and David Curtis and found on our doorstep at six o’clock last night was a bottle of pink champagne and some delicious chocolates from Alice’s friend, Alice Everard. What generous souls they all are.
Chloe left shortly after lunch when Paul ‘the computer’ arrived to take over from 3 hours to allow Alice to get out shopping etc. Before she went Chloe downloaded some videos of the children taking part in Easter activities at school. The star of the show, I gather, was possibly grandson Seb. playing a solo piece on drums. When I watched the video of his performance I must say I was immensely impressed with his rhythm and technique. I do hope he keeps this up as it is clear he has a real talent. Then we saw dear little Lara singing a solo piece from Oliver which again was pretty good. I don’t think she’s ready to enter the X factor yet but she made a good stab at it only missing the odd note or two. It is quite an achievement for a little said the stand-up on the stage, all alone, except for a teacher who sat by her side on the floor, to face up to the entire school and parents-two or 300 people-without showing any signs of nervousness. Both Seb. And Lara will have gained a great deal in personal confidence from their performances, much to their credit and that of the music teacher at the school.
There are many adults, I know in life, who would not subject themselves to the same potentially embarrassing situation so much credit to these little ones. As a special treat to all my readers I and named attempt to include Seb’s drum solo. Click here to see if you agree with me that was a pretty good effort for a 10-year-old. April 2012