16. February 2012

I am mystified. Believing that my Webmaster, Richard Morris, had cleverly recovered my blog that had been hacked, when I went into it today. I was only able to see the first few lines of each entry. I checked) yesterday entry with the same result. But then when I logged in again . the whole of the entry was there. So I really did not know what’s going on. I e-mailed Richard , who explained it as follows:

If you look at the Diary tab, all the entries are there in full but if instead you look at the individual archive entries for, say, January 2008 it only shows the first few lines of each entry. Clicking on the title of the individual entries pulls up the full diary entry.

That explains it. The recovered blog is on a slightly different templates to the original onr.

I have been so alarmed at the thought of my four years were being lost forever that I had not really been taking note of what has been going on elsewhere. I know the situation in Greece is still on a knife edge and that the same credit agency, Moody’s have prophesied that the UK has a 30% chance of losing its triple-A rating within the next 18 months. Having said that, there are other more encouraging signs of the stirring of a recovery.

I had e-mails today from various members of the committee of the Arbitration Club. They are coming down in April and May, over two weeks, to give me lunch at the Cricketers. The reason for the two visits is that they realise I cannot really cope with a big crowd so they have limited it to 3 or four at a time. It’s very good of them to take the time off because I know how busy they all are. I just hope that I will still be up to socialising in May.

Talking of socialising., two of the ‘old faithfulls’, Cecilia and Douglas Gordon were scheduled to come around for a drink late this afternoon, however, Cecilia rang up to say that Douglas was stuck on a train somewhere so we took a rain check. It would have been good to see them and catch up with their news. In some ways we were relieved as I tend to get more fatigued as the day goes on,

Most of my friends are very considerate and do not stay beyond the hour as this is just about as much as I can do with on a one-to-one basis without getting severely exhausted and breathless. Alice has decided that from now on we will invite anyone who is kind enough to want to see me to come and have mid-morning coffee.

Today’s diversion is entitled Why Women Wear White Wedding Dresses. Click here for a piece of pure male chauvinism for which I apologise. I certainly do not subscribe to this but nevertheless it does evoke a chuckle

15 February 2012

I am a very happy man. today. Working through the night. good old Richard managed to recover the entire blog using a slightly different templates to the original but nevertheless it is still there. I am so relieved. For although I have the actual blog diary, as I said yesterday, the actual blog itself with all the additional anecdotes; pictures; videos and photos is a much more complete piece of work. This was all very alarming. It has prompted me to ask Richard, what I’ve been wanting to consider for some considerable time and that is if I could have a permanent copy made of the blog as it appears on the web, so that future generations of my family, at lease will be able to see it in all its glory, even if it is no longer active. The available on the web. Richard has an inkling that this might be possible and will revert to me shortly.

Having now ceased to take the additional cortisone that the good doctor had prescribed for night pains, my time in bed is not quite as good it was previously. One of the problems being that the weight of the bedclothes prevents me from moving. Accordingly, I thought that if I could get a frame or cradle, such as they use in burns units in hospital, then this would keep the heavy blankets off me and I would be able to move about, albeit only an inch or two at a time.

Having decided this was the way forward. I telephoned my MND team coordinator at Addenbrookes, thinking she could requisition a cradle from one of the other hospital clinics d however, this would have been far too simple!. I was advised to try the Red Cross. As Alice’s family have had a lot to do with this organisation. over the years – her paternal grandmother was head of the Welsh Red Cross for a while- and this was one of the charities to which’ my lovely’ makes regular modest donations, I thought they would be only too happy to help. I think they would have been had they had such a cradle, but apparently they had not seen one for some considerable time.

That left me with the alternative of going through my occupational therapist but then she would have to get it from the hospital so I decided to take the bull by the horns and contact the CEO of Addenbrookes Hospital direct. Working upwards from my MND unit through all the various layers of administration could become a nightmare, whereas one word from the CEO to the right department could solve my problem in a stroke. This indeed is what happened.

His PA put me in touch with a Community Services organisation, who, after a telephone call where I agreed to an assessment, thought that they would be in a position to provide what I need.

Today was the deadline for Greece to accept the terms laid down by the EU for the €130 billion emergency fund . they have agreed to provide, but only on the written understanding, signed by all parties, that these terms would be honoured in the future. As I understand it the Greek parliament has voted to accept the terms but that the government has yet to sign the necessary documentation so the possibility of a default is still very much in prospect.

As this entry is broadly about innovative thinking, I thought my readers might like to see how some bright spark made a dwelling out of a container box. Click here to see the finished result., it might surprise you .

14. February 2012

For my overseas readers who may not celebrate St Valentines Day. I should explain that it is dedicated to love and is often observed by exchange of greeting cards, flowers and chocolates. I’m sorry to say that this was the first time in our 49 years of marriage that I have failed to produce something appropriate for’ my lovely’. I think last year I had a bouquet of flowers delivered to her.

Why don’t I know for sure, as I could, in the normal way, just refer to 14 February entry last year from my archived diary, but, horror of horrors yesterday someone hacked into my blog and completely destroyed. it. I only discovered this late yesterday morning when I tried to publish yesterday’s entry and was presented with a complete blank, where the blog should have been. In checking out the computer and great big red warning came up informing me that there was a severe threat from a critical worm (virus) and there was a box which said something to the effect To remove this virus press here. Being aware that, some instances,  by pressing the delete virus but you can actually activate it and depending on what it is, it could destroy the entire data files, I did nothing except to telephone my good friend Paul, who very kindly agreed to pop round another look at it for me. He carried out various checks and then set me up for a full scan the result of which showed that I had a Trojan.win/sisproc worm virus which I was able to remove using Malawre software, but the damage had been done. My entire blog, over four years of work had simply disappeared.

I immediately got onto my Webmaster and friend, Richard Morris, who set the whole thing up for me in the first place and left messages for him on his e-mail and mobile. It was not until the evening that Alice managed to track him down and now Richard is on the case. Realising what had happened he had  already spent some hours trying to reconstruct a every single code which had been overwritten and it would take him all night trying to sort it out. . I got the old thing was a bit of a mystery as Richard is very security conscious but, as he says , if a hacker is determined to get inhe will . (remember  the hacker who got into the Pentagon files). Just what that means, as I write this , I have no idea whether I would ever see my blog again in its old form.

Why would anyone want to hack into my blog?. I asked Richard. He said, just because it’s there and perhaps because it has become so popular, someone just decided to be malicious and wipe it out. Howver, Richard was very surprised that all the security safeguards he had in position when he had created this site had not protected it, because, as I said , he is very security minded

As I write, mid-morning I have no idea what Richard managed to achieve overnight or even if this current entry will be able to be posted. The only consolation I have is that from the very beginning. I have kept three hardcopies of the entries; one for’ my lovely’ and one each for the two children to this means that they have the essential diary but none of the fun Anecdotes; Videos; Jokes or Photos. Those were not desperately important but they certainly did add to the enjoyment of what otherwise might have been a rather boring diary.

In a hopeful anticipation, and now how clever Richard (Morris) is my Webmaster I have included some the appropriate for St Valentine’s Day. Click here to see the husband of the year .

13 February 2012

I had a relatively pain-free night despite having reduced the cortisone down to one tablet, as recommended by the good doctor. In fact, after tonight I shall stop this additional painkiller altogether. for, as Michael says, he doesn’t want to trespass on other people’s territory.

Getting back to our usual routine with a flurry of people in the early morning. First the carers. Then Peter ‘the garden’, followed by George the post’ and James’ the plumber’ finally Doreen, my secretary came in to sort out my backlog of papers. It sounds a bit like Happy Families. Never a dull moment.

The situation in Greece are still occupying a great deal of media space. Although their Parliament passed the government’s recommended austerity measures, it now seems that they will not be able to draw down on the €132 billion emergency bailout fund,, today, as they believed, but it will be subject to them achieving certain goals, presumably to demonstrate that they really have implemented the austerity measures to which they have agreed. However, the populace are not placated. They seem furious that further austerity measures should be imposed upon them, having had five years of them are so far. There are regular riots and the rioters seem to be smashing the place up as a demonstration of their disfavour. However, is a little hard to understand how that is going to help anything. If public opinion has anything to do with it it seems that the Greek. people would be prepared to leave the Eurozone and row their own boat.

Today, another international credit agency Moody’s following Standards and Poor’s example, downgraded the credit rating for three further European countries , Spain, Portugal and Italy and at the same time, gave a warning that GB is on notice of a possible change to their rating in the future – presumably if our prospects worsen. What this means, in effect is that if a country’s credit rating is lowered they have to pay more to borrow money on the international markets to service their debts, which makes it even more difficult to balance their books and so on. I believe the current rate that the Greeks have to pay for borrowing money which I understand is now is 33%, creates an impossible situation that cannot be sustained. It is hard to see how the Greeks can avoid defaulting on their debt repayment, with what consequences for the rest of us, heaven knows.

Getting close to the end of the eye drops I have to have following my second cataract operation. I have arranged a home visit for an eye test, following which it was my intention then to purchase some new, vari-focal glasses. Unfortunately, neither Spec Savers nor Vision Express, with whom I dealt with for many years, when I make home visits. As the fitting of glasses for vari-focals is more of an exact science. Then, just for ordinary glasses I may have a clear whether the home optical people who are coming here can offer me similarly advantageous rates as those on offer at these online outfits.

I received an e-mail from the Dragon people yesterday asking me to contact them as and when the problems, about which I have complained, occur again. They have suggested that on receipt of such a call they will instantly set up a co-browse session to see if they can identify the cause. Whilst this is a nice helpful suggestion, it may not be a practical one. The problem is that the fault is are intermittent and not all of them would occur at the same time. If the programme froze Microsoft Word or Outlook they might be able to discover why that was. But it wouldn’t give them a clue as to why the programme was not responding to my Commands. I think I will wait until Paul comes at the end of the week and work out some modus operandi with him.

Today’s diversion is one of those many entitled’ Beware, they walk amongst us. Click here to see how thick. some people can be.

12 February 2012

I heard from Alice late last evening that the whole memorial service and reception afterwards and gone extremely well. She was particularly proud of son Smiler, .who endeared himself to much of the congregation by speaking some Welsh. He has been having lessons for two or three years now and I gather is making good progress in a very difficult language. Chloe also played her part by reading Psalm 23 beautifully

I remember when Karl and Chloe got married and I was told that 20 or so of Karl’s Dutch relatives were attending, I spend about three months trying to learn a few lines of Dutch in order to welcome them. It really is the most harsh and unpleasant sounding language, as half the time, in order to pronounce words correctly, it sounds as though you’re clearing your throat!

. We put through a Skype call to Richard and my mother mid-morning, hoping to find out how Alice’s journey was progressing-she told me she would call in on them on the way back but at 11 a.m she had not yet arrived. although she was expected any minute.

Listening to my World Service, on the BBC during the night, there were still very much speculation about the financial future of Greece. Although the government. there have unanimously agreed all the stringent terms which were being imposed upon them in exchange for a a further €130 billion to safeguard them against defaulting on their debts, it was by no means certain that Parliament would ratify this agreement., which in the event , I heard they had. Add to that that the 48-hour general strike against the austerity proposals and the whole position looks very tenuous. It really it would not surprise me if shortly they default on the terms of the loan. I believe Germany have said they are no longer prepared to guarantee the Greek debt if they do not abide by the strict terms laid down for them to start clearing their debt. In which case I suspect if they do default, they will be thrown out of the Eurozone. One way or the other, the matter needs resolving soonest as the degree of uncertainty is unsettling the world markets.

The other international news which is causing a great deal of consternation is the situation in Syria. President al-Assad seems determined to hang on to power at whatever cost and we have seen for ourselves how the innocent families are being bombarded in Homs, a stronghold for the rebels. How many hundreds of innocent people have been murdered. this way, we may never know. The Western powers apparently are helpless in this situation and cannot intervene so long as Russia and China are prepared to veto such intervention through the United Nations. Pray that Russia and China shortly see the light so that there can be a unanimous vote in the United Nations to stop this dreadful massacre.

Trouble is also brewing in Egypt against the military who toppled the last president. As in so many previous cases where this has happened, it seems that the military are rather loath to give up power as they seemed prepared to do when they took over in the first place.

The past two or three days with the good doctor had been very pleasant. Quiet, with both was doing our own thing, so not too exhausting. We did manage to sit in the breakfast room on two occasions when I was able to have a cigar and a glass of champagne, which, I’m pleased to say, had no ill effect on my nose at all, so I shall resume my former habits. Michael left around 5.00 pm today, heading back to Sweden. I must say we are both very grateful to him for taking over in Alice’s absence and he was absolutely wonderful about coming down every couple of hours during the night to turn me over. Hopefully we will see him here for a couple of days in March before he heads back to Australia.

As a parting gesture, Michael very kindly wrote a note of his observations of my condition which I can give to the various people at Addenbrookes, pepper and my GP. I know they appreciate his input and I am very lucky to have such an experienced friend.

As this is a fairly serious entry I will give my readers a more erudite diversion than usual. Click here for Puns for Intelligent People.

11 February 2012

I want to dedicate this entry to my dear mother-in-law without any other trivia, personal or otherwise. I never knew either of my grandmothers, so Sprig as she was known to her friends, or Mums to my generation of the family, was the nearest thing I had to the real thing. She was always kind and loving towards me and I grew very fond of her.

Her funeral, a cremation, arranged by her two daughters, Alice Cato and Victoria Grand,and, as regular readers will know, was held in Cornwall, where she had been living with my sister and brother-in-law in her own granny flat-The Granary.

The Memorial Service (as I call it) to celebrate her life was given on Friday 10th of February. Of course,, to my sadness, I was not able to attend either service and therefore must rely on the snippets of information given to me by my family and what I could glean from the Service Sheet.

The front of the service sheet was set out as follows:

Service of Remembrance and

Thanksgiving for the Life of

Marjorie ‘Sprig’ Nanny-Wynn

1911-2012

The Church of St Cadfan, Tywyn

Friday, dated February, 2012

at 3.00 p.m.

Service conducted by Reverend Neil .Fairlamb

Organist: Gwenda Graham

( NB.’ Sprig’ ,.is the diminutive for sprigorn. A pet name given to her by her father, which means the smallest or youngest of the brood.. It is also an Irish word for a pixie who lives under a stone.)

 

The Order of Service Music and Prayers were selected by the two surviving daughters, Alice and Victoria)

The MUSIC ON ENTRY was Ave Verum the Corpus – Mozart

This was followed the WELCOME & BIDDING PRAYER and the opening HYMN

 Love divine, all loves excelling

Then THE READINGS

Psalm 23

               Read by Chloe Volz (nee Cato) (Granddaughter)

Philippians 4:4-9

Read by William Garton Jones (Grandson)

Poem by Dylan Thomas

Read by France’s Grand ‘s Grandson)

These readings were followed by the HYMN

The day thou gavest, Lord is ended

Then followed the ADDRESSES

The first was given by Miles Wynn Cato (Grandson)

 

It is an honour to have been asked to make this address and I am very conscious of both the responsibility and the challenge of trying to encapsulate my grandmother’s long and full life in a few short minutes. My first encounter with her was in 1964 when I was a baby in South Africa. My parents had been involved in a bad car accident in which my mother had broken both her arms leaving her unable to hold me. Granny dropped everything and flew out to spend several weeks looking after me. Although of course I have no memory of her at that time, it was a characteristically selfless act. I last saw her in the autumn. As Kimberly and I were leaving Lower Amble Farm in Cornwall, where Granny spent the last years of her life so happily, she was sitting up in bed with a broad smile on her face. I am sure she knew that her life was drawing to an end, indeed I believe she was quite ready for it to do so but she exuded that air of profound peace and acceptance which can only come from having lived one of those all too rare lives in which the emphasis is on giving rather than taking.

Granny was born into a family deeply effected by war. Her father was an officer in the army and had been wounded in the first World War and her mother had turned to Christian Science in response to the losses she had suffered during that time. The philosophy of Christian Science is essentially that of living life through a lens of spirituality and with a profound consciousness of  God’s love. Although Granny was not strictly a Christian Scientist herself she loved God and revered the church and a fundamentally Christian approach was evident in her relationships with her family and friends throughout her life. As a mother and a grandmother her presence was one of dignity and reliability but also of gentleness, warmth and a very subtle humour. Her husband, my grandfather, was also born into a family profoundly effected by war. His father, who raised and commanded troops from here in Tywyn, had been severely wounded by a sniper in the Boer War and spent the rest of his adult life confined to a wheelchair and in pain.

My grandparents were married in 1936 and lived initially near Granny’s family in Sussex before moving to Merioneth permanently in the mid-1950’s. Of course, as newlyweds war was looming once again and, in common with so many of her generation, Granny was faced with the challenge of bringing up her children alone while her husband was abroad fighting. She also faced the challenge of finding her place in rural Wales, a very different world to the genteel Sussex of her childhood. After a brief spell living here in Tywyn followed by a couple of years at Cefn Camberth by the quarry at Tonfanau the young family moved into Llanfendigaid. It was in this period that the they were fortunate enough to establish a solid relationship with the Davies family, one which is still going strong after over fifty years. Stella Davies, ‘Bore da’ as she was known at Llanfendigaid, went on to work for my grandparents for many years and her daughters Olwen Roberts and Rosemary Lloyd Jones, as well as their husbands Arthur and Lemmy, have been a huge support to the family over all that time and my grandmother was extremely fond of them all.

It is easy to forget in this changed world that when my grandparents moved into Llanfendigaid it was just the rump of what only a generation before had been one of the most extensive landed estates in Merioneth, and that the Nanney-Wynn and Kirkby families had been a major presence in this county for hundreds of years. While their role was greatly diminished by the break up and sale of almost the entire estate, for an Englishwoman to take her place in such deeply rooted family at this time undoubtedly required considerable strength of character and self-confidence. Granny succeeded admirably in fulfilling this role in the most dignified way. While pomposity and snobbery were utterly alien to her, she was always respectful of the dynastic symbolism that Llanfendigaid took on for many members of the extended family once the other parts of the estates had been sold. She always recognised how fortunate she was to live in such a beautiful and historic place but it was first and foremost her home and somewhere she loved.

Granny was a countrywoman through and through. As a girl she was passionate about hunting and her love of animals remained with her throughout her life. Perhaps her greatest and most enduring enthusiasm was for gardening and the gardens at Llanfendigaid flourished under her care. It was entirely natural to her to make her home a place of warmth, welcome and hospitality in the best Welsh tradition, much to the benefit of her numerous grandchildren. On a wider stage, she and my grandfather were deeply conscious of the family’s historically good relationship with their tenants and they always had the highest regard for the Roberts family who farmed, and still farm, Llanfendigaid, as well as a deep respect for the very considerable challenges facing all livestock farmers in north Wales. Their dealings with Mair and Dafydd Roberts were always informed by a strong sense of duty, as well as a sincere friendship, and nothing would have been more important to them than for this relationship to continue in the same honourable vein.

Thirty years ago Granny faced her greatest test when tragedy struck and she lost her husband and eldest daughter Mary in quick succession. Her dignity shone through in the hardest of circumstances, undoubtedly bolstered by her strong Christian faith. With very little interest in spending money on herself she directed her resources generously and, amongst other things, gave considerable financial support to the fabric of St Mary’s church in Rhoslefain. This place, where her husband and many other members of the family are buried, and where she will be interred later this afternoon, meant a great deal to her and she was always grateful to know that it was so well looked after by the churchwarden Olwen Roberts together with her husband Arthur who continues, even following the great blow of its closure, to maintain the churchyard so well.

In the dark days following her double bereavement, Granny moved to Aberdyfi and another stage of her life began. Living in a village within walking distance of shops, and with beautiful views over the Dyfi estuary and the sea, turned out to be a very positive move for her. She made some wonderful and supportive new friends – none more so than her neighbour in Penhelig Terrace, Myra Haylar, who showed her such kindness over many years. In my grandfather’s absence, other friendships took on a new importance to her such as that of her trustee Rosemary Hobbs who was a regular and always welcome visitor to Penhelig. Granny’s widowhood was a long one but there were many happy times, particularly the travels she undertook with her daughters which are remembered as times of fun and during which her natural interests in many different things were given new life. This period was also one in which she developed her relationships with the various charities she supported such as the Girl Guides and the NSPCC. With so many of her family having been in the army it was only natural for her to be drawn to the British Legion and she had the honour to serve as President of the Women’s Branch of the Legion in Merioneth – a fact which it is gratifying to see acknowledged by the Legions’ presence here today.

Latterly came Granny’s final move, to Cornwall to live with her youngest daughter Victoria and her husband Laurence. It is hard to imagine that anyone could have been better cared for or loved in their last years and indeed those of you who know my aunt, and also my mother, will know that Granny’s ethos of selflessness and service to others was undoubtedly passed onto her own children.

How can I sum my grandmother Sprig up? She was full of love – for her family, for her many friends, for her Queen and for her country. She was a deeply traditional woman but one who was never afraid to voice her own opinions and hold own beliefs. She was a woman of high principles – a stranger to greed, to selfishness, to pomposity and to vulgarity. Her behaviour was always rooted in humility, fairness, decency and respect. The outcome of living such a life is plain to see amongst the many of us gathered here to remember her today – a sincere respect and indeed love for a woman whom we were all fortunate to have known.

I would like to conclude my address by reciting a few words I have written about Granny in Welsh. One of the blessings of having Sprig as a grandmother was that she always took such an interest in her numerous grandchildrens’ multifarious activities. In the graveyard here at St Cadfan’s is a tombstone erected in 1774 to a harpist called Hugh Ellis who had been drowned in the Dysinni. On it is inscribed some verses composed by his patron William Nanney Wynn. Although these are in English Nanney Wynn was described by contemporaries as having a radical understanding of his mother tongue. However, in common with many landed families in Wales our command of the language declined dramatically the 19thc. My grandfather was an enthusiastic Welsh learner and I have been attempting to follow his example, albeit slowly and fitfully in London where good lessons are surprisingly hard to find. Granny always encouraged me and I know she would have wanted me to have swallowed my pride and risk practising here today a little of what I have learned.

(Miles concluded his address, much to the delight of the Welsh present, with the following which he had written and translated and delivered in Welsh)

Cafodd hi ei geni yn Lloegr, ond daeth ei chalon i Gymru yn fuan

Cafodd hi ei chroesawu gan eneidiau’r rhai aeth o’r blaen

Darganfu hi hedd rhwng y caeau ac y mynyddoedd

A roedd hi’n caru y mor mawr wrth ei drws

Cofiwch y fenyw hon gyda’r ei wyneb siriol

Cofiwch y fenyw hon gyda ei ysbryd da a chryf

Bu farw hi yn Lloegr, ond bydd ei chalon ym Meirionydd am byth,

bydd ei chalon ym Merioionydd am byth…..

She was born in England but her heart soon came to Wales

She was welcomed the spirits of those who had gone before

She found peace among the fields and the mountains

And she loved the great sea at her door

Remember this woman with her smiling face

Remember this woman with her spirit good and strong

She died in England but her heart will forever be in Merioneth,

her heart will forever be in Merioneth.

 

The second address was given by Victoria ground (Great Granddaughter)

The ADDRESSES were followed by PRAYERS

Then the HYMN

Guide me, O thou great Redeemer

Followed by the BLESSING

EXIT MUSIC

God be in my head

On the back page of the Service Sheet was a poem written ‘my lovely’

RETROSPECT

There is a part of you, a part of me

As calm, as distant as that summer sea;

A part as lonely as that once-shared beach

A place so loved, became a part of each.

Those endless hills, mist-ridden, open-free;

That perfect flower, that unforgotten tree. 

Evening skies through gentle crowds of pine

These, forever, part of your soul and mine

Alice Cato

—————————————————————————————————————————

One of the highlights of the service was a solo by Mair Roberts, wife of Dafydd Roberts, a former tenant of the Llanfendigaid estate. The congregation were highly privileged to hear Mair, who has a beautiful voice and who has been a winner on a number of occasions at various Eisteddfods.

.
I gather that the vicar, the Reverend Neil Fairlamb said some very nice things about Sprig and recounted how they met..

Finally, this invitation was included on the back of the service sheet

.

Members of the family wish to express their gratitude for your attendance at this service, and invite you to join them at Llanfendigaid (the family home) for tea

 

10 February 2012

Alice’s first night away and the good Dr Michael had to take over the ‘turning over’ tasks during the night. He did very well, particularly as I managed to knock the emergency button. a couple of times and had him scurrying back to all the deep minutes after he’d settle down again, so I suspect he did not have a very good night himself. He had reduced even further the additional cortisone and although I was still relatively pain-free, although not quite as good as the night before.

On the whole we managed yesterday pretty well. Michael has observed and remembered most of the little things that’ my lovely’ does to make sure things run smoothly for me. I thought he did very well, although there’s nothing quite like the real thing!

Paula, one of my carers, told us about the scandalous goings-on at the village hall. Bear in mind that this is quiet English village in which anything rarely seems to happen outside closed doors However, on this occasion, a couple of nights ago, the PTA (Parents Teacher Association) for the Local Primary School organised a’ do’, in the village hall. Unbeknownst to most people, other than those involved, it turned out to be a bit of a rave. An evening of strippers and transvestites, certainly not the sort of thing we are used to in this model English village. I have no doubt there will be there will be an emergency meeting of the parish council, to conduct a post-mortem on that event and to ensure it does not happen again.

Tragically, it seems, from what I have been told that there was an accident caused by one of the attendees driving home in her 4×4, crashing into another car and the occupant of which has ended up in hospital.

I heard from’ my lovely’ she and the family have arrived safely and were shortly off to the church to check the final arrangements. So far so good. I just hope the threat of snow in the Midlands does not put too many people off attending the memorial service.

Re the strippers I suppose it is a suitable entry to include another bit of male chauvinism. Click here to  see Husband the Year

9 February 2012

I am happy to report yet another painless night, whether as a result of the good doctor’s additional painkillers or not we have still yet to prove. Having said that he reduced the amount of cortisone from 4 to 3 tablets and tonight we will go down to 2 and see what is the effect. In any event, I spent one of the best nights I’ve had for months as I was pretty exhausted by bedtime and was having some breathing difficulties. I really must try to take a rest after lunch, and remember the ‘Spoons full of energy’, test

Alice left in a flurry around 8.30 this morning, gushing out last-minute instructions to the good Dr as if she was to be away for at least a month and we were off to the North Pole! Fortunately the weather prospects of her drive to Wales looks fairly good and she should be able to miss all the snow and ice. Having said that, I’ve no doubt the weather will put off a few potential attendees, so I hope all the girls efforts will pay off. In any event, I shall be glad when it’s all over and possibly my’ lovely’ is back in the fold.

I read something in the Patients like Me, Newsletter, which I thought was a real relevance .Spelling it out in simple language, someone came up with the idea to get across to patientss like me that you start each day with a certain volume or amount of energy. Let us say a jug full. As the day progresses the more you are doing, the more spoon-fulls of energy you use up, until possibly, the jug is empty (which is what I suspect it was last night for me). The sensible thing to do is to keep an eye on the jug and ration, out your efforts retaining the odd spoonful of energy and go to bed with something still left in the jug. Good advice which I must heed.

I was delighted to catch a snippet of news on the radio the other evening, about a primary school somewhere in the south of England, where the head mistress (who I believe I have now to call the head teacher!) was accused of teaching elocution to primary school children. Since it seems that the powers that be decided some time ago that we were a multi cultural society, the BBC and other television programmes have, as a matter of policy, employed continuity staff, with regional accents, which is fine , except that some of them can scarcely pronounce the Queen’s English. I am not advocating going back to the days of the posh BBC language but applaud this head teacher for pointing out to children that the T existed in our alphabet. For example, asked one dear little chap, ,how would he spell ‘think’. ‘F I N k ,Miss’, he replied, and was amazed when the teacher pointed out the correct spelling. What is more, he was even more surprised when she explained that if he could put his tongue forward between his teeth, he could pronounce’ TH’ . He really did not know that such a sound existed.

So we can now expect these children instead of saying ‘be’er’, in future, sounding the ‘t’s’ and saying better. This teacher is to be congratulated. She has improved the employment prospects these children significantly in stroke.

Having written this I became curious as to the origin of the expression ‘ to a T’. I guessed it meant something. precise or accurate. Having searched my book of quotations, the only two I could find that I liked were ; Repetition does not turn I lie into truth -Franklin D Roosevelt and Classical music is the kind we keep thinking will turn into a tune; – Kin Hubbard (1868 – 1930). Well no joy there and none the wiser. I wondered who was this Philistine, Kin Hubbard?

At last I have received my allocation of tickets for the forthcoming cricket season at Lord’s. Whereas over the last 20 or 30 years I have taken up to 14 guests over the season, friends, as well as family, this year, as I am uncertain what state I shall be myself, I’ve cut it down to 6. My oldest friend Geoffrey Hanscombe (94); Steve Harrison; son-in-law, Karl and nephew Tom Grand and introducing my two grandsons Fred and Seb. for the match on 18 August (my 78th birthday -about being a tad optimistic, after all six months can be a lifetime for an MND patient!) Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in the ballot and only got one adult and one juvenile for that day. My best chance now is to obtain the extra tickets under the wheelchair enclosure ballot which I do today.

Now for something quite different. Probably more for the boys than the girls but click here for the unique experience of a ride in the incredible U 2.the.the spy plane.

8 February 2012

It was the coldest night of the year, and one of the coldest on record, something in the order of -12°C around Bedford. Ironically, it was colder here than in Sweden, which was certainly a first for Michael.

On the personal front, I’m glad to say it was almost painless night for me. after the dreadful one yesterday. Dr Michael increased my paracetamol to 2000 m.g and chucked in a cortisone tablet for good measure, that on top of the cocktail of drugs which I already take. The problem is that I rarely have a really bad and painful night so we do not know whether it was the extra drugs which were effective or was just a night when I would have been pain-free anyway.

The main media and news involves the imminent release from prison of Abu Qatada, the self confessed terrorist who was thought to be Al Qaeda’s representative in Europe. Abdul came to this country as a radical preacher openly spreading hatred of the Christians.

He was imprisoned, prior to an attempt to have him deported back to his homeland in Jordan. However, on the intervention of the European Court of Human Rights, we were told we would not be allowed to send him back to Jordan as he was a convicted criminal there and information which had been extracted from him by torture might be used against him in any further trials. This being the case, we have the crazy situation where he openly exposes the murder of Christians and we cannot get rid of him.

Our own courts then intervened and decided that we could not hold him in prison any longer because he had committed no crime in this country (I’m not sure quite how far you could have proved incitement against the Christian society) and the judge ordered him to go under house arrest for three months, whilst trying to sort out the deportation business. He would only be allowed out for two hours a day and was not allowed to use mobile phones or the Internet. He has, however, I understand, being given consent to walk his children to school everyday! I can’t help feeling that if I was a parent at the same school and saw him turning up every morning with the possibility of some madman trying to eliminate him, I might well have second thoughts about keeping my children at that school. If it turns out that we cannot deport him. then, we are faced the ludicrous situation of spending millions of pounds over the years protecting him around the clock and paying sufficient benefit for him to live comfortably with his family as he is clearly unemployable!.

Are we mad or what? No other country in the world would take such a soft line on one of the most dangerous confessed terrorist in the world. This may well be the trigger for us to defy the European Court of Human Rights and start the process of withdrawing control of our legal system from Europe altogether, which is something I have been advocating in this blog for a very long time. Our jurisprudence has been the envy of the world for two or 300 years and why we should suddenly be able to be overruled by disparate mixture of judges, some from the Third World, maybe with an axe to grind,? This is, to my mind sheer lunacy. The electorate no doubt will take note of how well our Prime Minister, Mr Cameron (through our Foreign Minister) deals with this lose/ lose situation.

The funeral that Alice, Miles and Kimberly attended yesterday afternoon, fortunately, went off without a hitch, unaffected by the snow and ice, that we have suffered from over the past two or three days. Apparently there was a very big turnout for this sad business and Smiler, who was a particularly good friend of the deceased, read, the 23rd Psalm. They will all be off again tomorrow, heading for North Wales, for the Memorial Service being held for my dear mother-in-law, where, I trust the atmosphere will be different from yesterday’s funeral in that this can genuinely be a celebration of her life, the actual funeral having taken place earlier.

The good Dr Michael arrived around 7 p.m. last evening from Sweden, having two days earlier been in New York. He will stand in as locus parenti for Alice whilst she is away in Wales. In any event, the normal visits will be made from Ross Nursing, so the babysitting element should not be too onerous. As far as food is concerned, which will be fairly basic. I know Michael to be a reasonable cook so we will not starve.

We have booked to go next door to the Cricketers on Friday but if this sub zero weather continues, we shall probably eat in the breakfast room. Mick has some idea about going to the pub and bringing some food back here to eat – not a bad idea if Trevor Oliver agrees.

As this entry is predominantly about the British approach to life. You might enjoy these British humorous advertisements.. Click here to see them.

7 February 2012

After all the high flown language concerning the Queen and her Diamond Jubilee I hate to start this entry on a low note. But having promised my readers that I would be entirely honest about my condition, I have no choice. if I am to honour that promise. Last night was the most painful night I had spent since his condition was diagnosed. I had severe pain in my right shoulder, 10 out of 10 on the pain scale and then, in addition, both hips and both knee joints were painful but less than the shoulder except that for a short period one of the hips reached somewhere in the order of 9/10 on the pain scale. This, despite the significant amount of painkillers I take every night. Fortunately, I have an appointment at the pain clinic in a couple of weeks time. to have a nerve block injection in my shoulder, so hopefully will be able to discuss the other pains at the same time. The odd thing is that the pain in the shoulder could be relieved by being turned so that I am lying on it but the hip and heel pain were only relieved when there was no pressure on them.

Having got that out of the way, I can record that today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Dickens. As a young man I was a voracious reader and to my mind Dickens is the greatest writer this country has ever produced. His skill, in a few words, to vividly bring a character to life; his skill in developing a storyline which turn his books into the page turner category and his skill in blending into these gripping tales enough social history to recognise the significant difference between how they live then. and now. Ironically, Dickens was acutely aware of the disparity between the rich and the poor and many of his books have this element woven into the story. Although the conditions in which the poor live today in this country would have exceeded even those of many of the rich in Dickens time, the gap between rich and poor is as wide as ever..

I have always loved Dickens and believe I have read almost everything he has ever written. As a young 15-year-old I spotted a set of his works in a local second-hand bookshop I plucked up my courage and went in and enquired how much they were. After the shopkeeper told me £15 I begged him to keep them for me and I would go and earn sufficient money to buy them. As a result I took on a paper round and a few months later became the proud owner of this wonderful set of books which still grace my bookshelves today..

If I were to be offered the choice of one book that I would be allowed to take on a desert island., other than the Bible and the full works of Shakespeare, I would try to persuade the organisers let me switch to Dickens in instead of Shakespeare, as my book would be the complete Oxford dictionary, all 39 volumes of it! A feast of information.

I have no idea what celebrations have been arranged to mark this auspicious occasion but, despite the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics. I trust that our greatest writer will not be overlooked.

Smiler and Kimberly dropped in today for a quick lunch on the way to a funeral for one of the friends with whom Smiler had grown up. A very sad occasion. It’s all about funerals for us at the moment with’ my lovely’ leaving on Thursday morning for the Memorial Service in Wales for her mother. I would like to have attended both funerals but it’s quite impossible for me to travel now unless it’s in an ambulance and then, when I get to the other end without the hoisting equipment and other bits and pieces, it would be impossible.

Paul’ the computer’ came at lunchtime to continue to assist me to overcome my Dragon problems as well, as to set up an infrared control that will allow me to play my music through the Bose speakers and control it from my laptop. He is a clever lad and I’m very fortunate that he is prepared to help me.

With our unemployment figures at a record high level and we must all retain a sense of humour, even in adversity . Click here for a joke entitled Welfare.

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