6 December 2011

So, yesterday was my quarterly visit to Papworth Hospital, where they conducted the usual extensive blow and sniff tests basically, checking the volume of air and strength of your lungs. Last night I slept with my finger attached an oximeter ,always provided by Papworh prior to my quarterly checkups. This is one of the most important tests as the oximeter measures the amount of oxygen in your blood in your lungs.

After all of the tests had been carried and results were available, I saw the the doctor to discuss the tests, this time was Dr Ian Smith, he seems to box and cox with Dr Michael Davies. Basically he was quite pleased with the results.

Bearing in mind that the combination of the tests will give you a good idea of your Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) which I gather is the most important overall test .My on my first visit on !0 September 2009 was 83.7%. 9 months ago it had dropped to ago, averaging this out that means a drop of every three months or so. 9 months Six months ago it was 46%; 3 months ago.

The results over the years, for supine (seated) are as follows;

Jan.2008 4.36 litres predicted 107%

26th.Mar. 2008 3.82 litres predicted

Apr. 10^th. 2008 4.3 litres predicted 96.7%? 22.488

Sept 25^th. 2008 4.32 litres predicted 83.7 % ? 19.375

Dec 18^th. 2008 3.94 litres predicted

Mar 26^tth. 2009 3.82 litres predicted

July 2^nd. 2009     4.02 litres predicted

Sept 10^th.2009 3.5 litres predicted 87%. First visit to Papworth Hospital.

Jan 14^th 2010 3.55 litres predicted

April 8^th 2010 3.3 litres predicted

June 28^th.2010 2.5 litres predicted 74%

July 22^nd.2010 2.5 litres predicted 74%

Aug 23^rd.2010 2.15 litres predicted 64%? 10% less than last equates 2.4 litres predicted, not 2.5

Nov1st.. 2010 1.5 litres predicted 59% see Sept 2011 1.55% litres predicted 48%

Dec 13^th. 2010 1.8 litres predicted

Jan. 2011 litres predicted 58% ?

Mar 2011 1.65 litres predicted 49%

Apr 2011 litres predicted 52%?

July 2011 1.55* litres predicted 46%

Sept 5^th..2011 1.55 litres predicted 46% 27.74

Dec 5^th . 2011 litres predicted 48%

NB.Figures marked with an asterisk are extrapolated by me.

These are the best figures I can produce from the various reports I have had. Some of the predicted percentages may be a little suspect that I can check on these in a day or two and if necessary change them.

The main thing is they show a downward trend which is what one would expect and it is the most recent is nine months or so which is of most interest.

From this we can assume that they FVC may well have plateaued although the next visit will give us a better idea ,if it still is around the middle 40’s that will be very encouraging.

How long that plateau will last nobody knows the least the time being the lungs are not deteriorating. It will also be interesting to find out what Dr Chris Allen has to say about this when I go for my quarterly MND assessment this Thursday

Incidentally, Dr Ian Thomas, knew nothing about Multi-vocal Motor Neuropathy As She Pointed out he is not an urologist). So I will take it up with Dr Chris Allen.

On the international front the world seems to be on tender hooks about a possible collapse of the euro, in the event that one of its member’s defaults (possibly Italy). In the meantime Pres Sarkozy and his female German equivalent President Merkell are hatching up a plot for a new EU constitution which they plan to publish in my March. The main purpose of which it seems is to create a group of 17 stronger members to underwrite your area and to impose tighter restrictions on all of its members to avoid this possibility of collapse occurring in the future.

Today, Jane ‘the sheep’ moved her sheep, for the winter, from our field. She and her doctor friend John, assisted by Alice had a great deal of trouble catching them but then eventually managed to get them into a pen. I don’t think they would have done too at one of our sheep trials! I was quite pleased to see them go-no doubt they’ll be back in this spring-as ‘my lovely’ has more than enough to do looking after me and the thought of her having to venture out, in all weathers ,to give the sheep, fresh water and hay, every early morning ,is quite unacceptable. This is the first time in almost 50 years that we have been without an animal . At peak we had three sheep, two donkeys, two cats and a dog – always a dog. We are both very fond of animals but Alice, in particular, sends modest contributions to a number of animal charities. I rather stuffy tend to stick to my favourite charity, the Salvation Army. A body of people who I admire enormously, who work quietly and tirelessly in the background doing tremendously good work, especially at Christmas for the poor and needy. A time when they know that these poor souls feel at their loneliest For two or three days, they are taken into the warmth, are treated to some Christmas fare and made to feel that somebody cares. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing, if like good King Wenceslas, each happy family sought out a lonely person to share their Christmas dinner.

As we are now touching on approaching Christmas this is the first of my Christmas contributions of jokes and pictures. A poor start but nevertheless. Click here

Our almost new lady vicar decided to drop in unannounced and, as I was struggling with Dragon to send a rather different e-mail, although I stopped to speak to her, you I suspect she was not too impressed with me. In any event, being a godless creature, she probably worked out that that she would not get much support from me – although to be fair we do make a modest annual contribution to the church roof fund The last time the vicar turned up unannounced call me, was when I was in Addenbrookes having my prostate operation. The first person I saw when I came round from the anaesthetic was a vicar. – not this one but one of the earlier ones .I didn’t exactly think I gone to heaven when I did quickly wonder whether I might have been on my way -last rites and all that!

4 December 2011

I had the most extraordinary comment ,on my blog today from one of my Australian readers. She wrote last November mentioning that her 75year-old husband had been diagnosed in 2003 with MND In 2009 he was re-diagnosed with flailing arm syndrome),MND. -which is what I was said to have. However, his biggest problem seemed to be that he was suffering from a great deal pain in his neck, shoulders, arms and hands. (An MRI showed to be suffering from ‘Severe Cervical, Spine Stenosis which is probable cause but of the pain of in his neck and shoulders and down his arms.

She wrote again yesterday to say that in January this year his neurologist said he had made a mistake and changed his diagnosed to Multifocal Motor Neuropathy (MMN) with conduction blocks. (According to the MNN website ,this is often confused with MND (Also this gentleman seemed to have many similar symptoms to myself. He had and still has fasciculatiions in his arms and legs, He has lost the use of his legs at and arms and could no longer feed himself. He has also lost a lot of weight.

His lungs have not been affected, He became doubly incontinent although this side of things has improved somewhat since getting treatment for control of his bladder..

For MMN the recommended course of treatment is fortnightly injections of ‘Intragam’ which is an intaveinus infusion of ‘Gammaglobulin”. Since this treatment started he has already shown promising signs of improvement. He can now walk with a Wheely Walker for short distances and feed himself with difficulty. It is all vey positive,

For these people this is clearly a miracle because MMN is treatable and you can ultimately be cured.. Naturally when I read these comments from my Australian reader I couldn’t help but have a spark of hope that I too have been wrongly diagnosed, but recognise the odds of 1,000,000 to one. At least, I hope they are able to tell me how they eliminated the possibility that I had MNN. However I’m not letting my hopes yet to hire a is clearly slight differences between the symptoms of both in particular the incontinence, which I do not suffer from and the weakness in the lungs from which I do. It is just the fact that he was originally diagnosed with ‘flailing arm syndrome’ as I was, that makes me curious. In order to learn a little more about MMN I went on to its website and it seems to me that most of the symptoms are similar to ALS in factbu it is admitted that they are sometimes confused.

Fortunately I have my quarterly MND assessment on Thursday of this week so will raise the matter then and report back to my readers in case any of them might think it worthwhile being checked .I am certainly not holding my breath but I would be a complete idiot if I were not to follow through on this when there is so much similarity between the two diseases. I know that my team Addenbrookes which came out of the evening team at King’s College London, are not likely to have made what must be a fairly simple mistake but I need to be reassured

I’m very grateful to the carer who made the comment in the first instance, on my blog, which is precisely what it is for, i.e. to share issues such as these with other patients which can improve the quality of life or even be life changing.

I shall avoid any reference to the global financial problems today as this matter is of far more interest to my readers.

Watch this space for further developments.

 

3 December 2011

I made my customary call to my mother and Richard this morning only to find that they too had been unwell in fact my mother been in for bed 12 day. One of the blessings of early onset of Alzheimer’s she had no memory of being there so long. Then Paul Richard got the same bug so the pair of them were ‘hor de combat’. In the normal way this would be very worrying, with them both being well into their 90s viruses or colds can very quickly turn into pneumonia. And the awful thing is I feel so helpless myself not being able to do anything. Fortunately, to remind the oldest friends, the Prytz’s live within 20 min awayI am godfather to the oldest girl, Amanda, who married a New Zealander and now runs a very successful wine business in the best winegrowing district, Marlborough. They have been absolutely marvellous and called in everyday to see if they could do some shopping and so on. I don’t know what we would do without . The trouble with Richard and Nan (short for Nanette) is that the doctors will hand them in hospital at drop of a hat, whereas they are far better off in their own home provided there is somebody, like the Prytz’s keeping an eye on them.

I am now almost fully recovered myself and am so relieved as had it been a really bad bout of flu it could have gone on for two or three weeks.

Paul ‘the computer’ came round yesterday afternoon and continued bringing the old files up to date. We are very nearly there. It’s such a pity that the other problem with Dragon, seems no further forward. I have heard absolutely nothing from them for weeks, despite, or perhaps is because of me referring the matter to the Trading Standards Office. Even they had been recalcitrant. I rang up the man allocated to the job, Mr Missen, only to get his answerphone message to say he will be away until 8 August I replied, touque in cheek, that I thought that was rather a long time, particularly, as my complaint concerned the delay of Dragon sorting out my problem. I’m not sure that he appreciated the joke. However, to keep them on their toes I spoke to his supervisor who said Mr Missen had been very busy but he would ask him to give me a ring me next week. During our conversation the supervisor dropped a bombshell and said that whatever happens they have no power to force any person against whom a complaint is made, to do anything at all, leaving it to the complainant to take the matter to court.

Why on earth did they not tell me that at the beginning and why do we spend millions every year maintaining such a useless outfit? It’s like beating someone with a feather duster. I’ve no doubt that the corporate lawyers in America at Nuance, quickly acquainted themselves with the powers available to the Trading Standards Office and instead of quaking in their boots just laughed the matter of. After I speak to Missen on Monday I must take serious consideration as to whether to put you on this matter in the local court. I’m sure one of my legal friends would be prepared to represent me ‘pro bono’.

With the Eurozone debate occupying a great deal of media and thought you might like to see an alternative view to the Greek situation than the one I gave earlier. (See 15 November 2011 entry)

Click here.

1 December 2011

I mentioned, in yesterday’s entry, that early in the morning I started to feel unwell. At that stage I stopped doing anything and just rested  but got worse and worse as the day went on. Both eyes were streaming badly and my nose was pouring but worst of all I had the most awful discomfort in my stomach. I felt seriously ill and couldn’t think straight and really thought I was in for a bout of something very serious. I had nothing to eat or drink all day. As it came towards my bedtie, I got more and more panicky as to what would happen if I was sick with the possibility of choking on my own vomit. Frankly this frightens me..

Because of my concern we rang our local doctor who dropped in and diagnosed ‘flu. So much for the flu jab which I had a few weeks ago. Even the doctor admitted that there were useless. He prescribed a strong dose of antibiotics and I took the first tablet before he left. The doctor asked me if I wanted to go to hospital but bearing in mind it iwa Thursday he said it was almost certain I would have to spend the weekend there. There was no way that I wanted to go the hospital as, frankly, at the weekend especiallys, the doctor on duty almost likely to be junior consultant, or registrar, if you’re lucky, then the rest of the time you’re just left languishing in bed. I’ve been there before. You press the alarm button and wait about 10 min before the nurse arrives unless you are in intensive care unit will you do not get much nursing and I knew I would be much better off at home. All sorts of suggestions were made about sleeping at night setting up in bed without my respirator. I really didn’t fancy that as I couldn’t see how I could sleep as I always sleep on my side. In the event I tried lying down as usual and after a few minutes the breathing settled down and although I felt like death that seemed the best sleeping solution. ‘My lovely’ one was her wonderful self and came down regularly, during the night, to turn e over. Although I don’t think I slept a great deal the night passed without event except for one emergency when I was quite sure I was going to be sick..

In the morning, miracle of miracles, the terrible sick feeling had virtually disappeared from my stomach and although I felt a little weak not having eaten or drunk anything . for 24 hours I got up and followed my usual routine. All very weird because if it was’flu, as a doctor suggested, in clear up in 24 hours seem pretty amazing, particularly as he was not prepared to commit himself as to how long it would take to clear up. I suppose the most encouraging sign was that he listened to my lungs and confirmed that they sounded quite normal. Without which, I imagine, I might have been liable to get pneumonia.

As a result of this indisposition I missed much of the news concerning the Chancellors Autumn Statement. Unfortunately I simply cannot manage a newspaper so from the snippets I picked up from the radio it seems that everyone is bracing themselves for the possible collapse of the euro, at least, they have contingency plans in place to minimiize the damage. There is still much about the possible breakup of the Eurozone followed by a limited reconstituted smaller group of countries should Italy, for example, default. The Governor of the Bank Of England made one of his rare television appearances when he stressed how very precarious was our economy today

I suppose one of the good pieces of news is the slow down in the growth in China’s economy to just under 9%. This is partially due to an increase in internal consumption and the slowdown in exports. The trouble with the global economy today, is that a shudder in America and China will reverberate in the world markets.

Now for something completely different. There have been so many new dances introduced since my youth but the one that really impressed me most which I was never really able to do was the Boogie Woogie, I think it was probably introduced to us by the Americans when they came over during the war. Some of my older readers will remember it and for them I say, sit back, turn up the sound, close your eyes, wallow in your memories and enjoy this! Incidentally, the piano player is Swiss.

Boogie Woogie is very popular in Switzerland especially in the Suisse Romande and Ticino. If you experience any trouble tapping your foot to the beat, you had better hurry and schedule an appointment with your physician.

Click here to see some real experts with fast feet and fingers!

Watch what his feet and knees are doing. Note that the top of his heard remains at a constant height ,no matter what his legs and feet are doing. The pianist from Switzerland, and plays some of the best Boogie Woogie anywhere. He is so BIG in the USA, that they hold a week-long Boogie Woogie contest every year and all the best players in the world are invited. In this video he is joined by 2 amazing dancers… The male dancer even has a haircut from the forties.

Do you think this is the time for a revival? It certainly beats aerobic classes and the latest craze, Simba dancing, But if you could keep up boogie Woogie, at anything like the pace at these two are going you will certainly get very fit indeed and were able to forget all about aerobic classes..

 

31 November 2011

The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Autumn Report was all gloom and doom. First of all he confessed that despite the earlier promise that his government had made, he was now not able to say that they would eliminate the deficit by the end of this present Parliament. At least, that was honest. Certainly everything has being against the Chancellor since he took over. Not only was the economy In a far worse financial state than they had been led to believe but, in addition, he has had to cope with the weakness of the global economy, in particular the Euro. He has warned that if there was a default in the Eurozone , it would certainly reverberate on us but to what extent no one can predict.. I think the biggest worry is still Italy who had to pay 8% on its most recent borrowing to service its debt. Interest at this level is totally unsustainable and unless things turn round fairly quickly Italy could go bankrupt. If they did it could be the beginning of a domino effect followed by Spain and Portugal which I then suspect might cause a total collapse of the Euro. Clearly there is a limit to the extent that the strong German economy can, or will be willing to, continue to support these weak countries.

On the home front I picked up very little detail other than there will be more cuts in services, benefits etc although the old-age pensioners were be getting five pounds a week more in the New Year (hurray!) The biggest problem facing us at present is, how the strikes by the public services union’s against increasingly retirement age to 67 and making them pay a little more towards their pension, is going to turn out. The first of strikes took place today and I got the impression that the country did not grind to halt as the unions led us to believe it might. In fact only 29% of those balloted for strike action agreed to it. Out of those there will be a number of people who voted in favour of strike action but in the event went into work. Although the government claims that they are still in negotiation with the unions it is difficult to see how they can compromise on the key issue of the retirement age but I suppose maybe a little room to manoeuvre in the amount of additional contributions that they workers have to make. With all these things it seems important that when the strike action is over strikers are able to say they have won when clearly it is nothing of the sort.

Ironically in the face of all this gloom and doom the stock market seems to be holding up exceptionally well, settling above 5300 when I fully expected it to drop to something in the region of 3500. It must mean that those in the know consider that the underlying strength of our economy is not as bad as we are made to believe.

After I finished doing my blogging e-mails I then thought I would sort out my tickets to Lord’s this year. I was horrified to see that the application has to be in by 16 December as I had decided to write to all my regular guests offering to make an application for Rover tickets for any match they wish to go to, but for obvious reasons I could not guarantee that I will be there myself. What this meant was I had to e-mail all 14 of them asking them to let them know their preferred dates so that I can collate all of these requests and make one application say no later than 12 December

In searching through my files today I came across the following amazing pictures which can genuinely be described as awesome. Click here and judge for yourself.

29 November 2011

I watched the weather forecast day by day praying for decent weather today as I have missed the last three Tuesdays. In fact, I got up and dressed ready for golf before ringing Debbie, Ollie’s wife, who told me that it was very windy and she didn’t think I should go. I must admit there was a strong wind and this can be extremely unpleasant when one is driving around the relatively open golf course in a wheelchair, so once again I cancelled. I have committed to go to the Geriatrics Christmas Lunch on 13 December so I will see all my pals then. Otherwise I very much doubt whether other than that I don’t go to the club again this year.

Readers may recall that I had occasion a short while ago to ask the District Nurse to drop in and look at my swollen feet which had turned a nasty purplely black colour, more like the sort of feet you would expect to see on a corpse in the mortuary than on a healthy human being. Anyway the district nurse was sufficiently concerned, rang and the surgery and asked if one of the doctors could drop in and look at them. I don’t know what she said to them but the doctor arrives half an hour later and recommended nifedipine to thin the blood (See 15 November entry). I was very impressed today when I received a call from the doctor to check to see if his recommended medication had been effective. This is the sort of care that we were used to when I first came here 50 years ago but has now long since changed. The second piece of personal medical news I have concerns the avoidance of pressure sores from sitting in the same position, unable to shift my weight, for up to 14 hours a day. (See 23rd of November entry) having discussed this with Harriet, of Ross nursing, I telephoned my occupational therapist, Lynne, and she said she would see what she could do about getting a special cushion. This cushion arrived yesterday and only six days after the original request. That is real service for you

Since I have been unable to walk I have worn an alarm button on each wrist and whoever is looking after me keeps the monitor with them. When I press the button on my wrist it bleeps on the receiver. Over the past couple of months I have found that my fingers are getting weaker and it has become more difficult for me to exert a sufficient pressure to activate the alarm button. Another call to my Occupational Therapist to arrange for the alarm people to come here to assess the situation and hopefully come up with an alternative. The technician arrived yesterday with a variety of ways of activating the receiver. In the end I opted for one that is operated under my chin. This means that  I  can be totally independent of my hands and normal movements of the head do not seem to set it off.. As there was a possibility that I could accidentally activate the chin button whilst in bed we opted for a large button on a long flexible stalk, one clamped to each side of the bed adjacent to the pillows so it mattered not which way I was facing, (Alice suggested they look like trififids  – mythical-  science fictional plants, War of the Triffids and all that) I could press one or other of these buttons without too much difficulty. If and when I lose the use of my arms then we will have to think again but for bed, maybe trying the chin device, but the time being this seems to be a workable solution.

As part of the remedial work that Paul’ the computer’ has been doing to isolate the problem with my voice activation programme, he had downloaded a two-month free trial of the professional edition of Microsoft Office 2010 as he suspected that the Home/ Student edition might not be compatible with my professional copy of Dragon and Outlook. Since installing this Professional copy of Microsoft Word the dictation side of Dragon has shown a significant improvement.

Accordingly, as my laptop, and the programsmes on it, are owned by the, MND through their subcontractors AbilityNet, I asked whether they would provide the upgrade for me. They asked me to approach the local MND branch in the first instance and if I did not get any luck there to go back to them. I rang Steve White, the chairman of our local branch and he sounded fairly optimistic, I just had to let him know how much so he can put it to his committee., Another potential problem arises because the MND Association have, or are in the throes of, extricating themselves from AbilityNet. Apparently they have no sucessor lined up yet so there will be nothing the equivalent of Microlink, to solve daily technical problems, for the time being. There is also the question of warranties on the laptops. Nobody seems to know, at the moment, when a particular one expires. So, for example, in my case if we we came to the conclusion that there was a hardware problem and wished to claim under our warranty, as things stand at the moment, we would not know whether we are still covered or not.

Click here for some more Paddy and Mick jokes, with apologises again to my Irish friends.

28 November 2011

The beginning of a new week and now only four weeks till Christmas. Inevitably, this year will be slightly different from previous years, which I went into some detail about in the blog, previously -.See Christmas 2009 entry). With half of the drawing-room taken up as a bedroom, sadly the atmosphere will not be the same. I’m not even sure yet whether we will be having our Christmas dinner in the dining room as usual, which ‘my lovely’ always makes look very festive, or whether we will be making use of the breakfast room. Sadly the little ones will not be climbing into my four poster bed at 5.30 a.m., itching to open their stockings as they have always done in the past. However, I must accept that I’m lucky to be here at all and still able to enjoy every minute of it.

Wednesday is Budget Day when the Chancellor will give us some idea of his plans for next year which we already know will be pretty tough. As a sweetener this morning he announced an injection of £30 billion in public works, sewers, schools etc. in an attempt to kick start the economy, £5 billion of which is apparently going to be raised by taxation, the details of which, no doubt, we will be disclosed on Wendesday. Tomorrow being a Tuesday, it is my geriatric golf day, I’m far more interested in a day out than sitting at home listening to the Chancellor dispensing doom and gloom. I have missed the last three weeks due to poor weather and I have a suspicion, backed up by the five-day forecast, that tomorrow will be no better.

On Wednesday, Ba and Rosemary, two of Alice’s old friends, are coming to tea and that’s about the extent of my excitement this week. That sounds very ungrateful as I know they are coming as much as anything to see me which, in fact, I quite enjoy provided they do not stay too long. My problem is after a couple of hours or so of talking, I feel exhausted.

Of course, far more important is the fact that Wednesday is the day scheduled for the general strike of the most of our public servants, schoolteachers; firemen; policeman; librarians; job centre workers; cleaners; road sweepers and the like, are all protesting against the proposed changes in their pension entitlements. I have written about this, over the past three weeks or so, so my readers will know that my view is that public servants should be brought into line with the rest of us and there can be no justification for them retiring seven or eight years earlier on a full pension. The old excuse used to be that they are paid less than the private sector and this was just one of their compensations. That no longer persists today as many of the senior managers in the civil service, for example, certainly get a perfectly good salary and, recently I learned that they also get bonuses! What for? Doing their job? Bonuses are usually given for performance and additional productivity. In the case of public servants it has to be a nonsense to give them a bonus for doing precisely what they are paid for in the first place but then what can you expect from a country who pays some civil servants a bonus for turning up for a certain number of weeks without taking time off sick! I think the point being that all civil servants have a’ sick allowance ‘which I gather they use as an entitlement. In other words they will actually ring up and ask their ‘human resources’ manager (personnel to you and me) how many sick days and they got left this year and then decide whether or not to take one of them.

I don’t think there will be a great deal of sympathy, in this country, for the strikers who will bring business, schools etc to a grinding halt and cause severe disruption on the railways and airlines when it is commonly known that we are sailing very close to the wind financially and it will not take a great deal to push us over the edge. As I have said before it is all about confidence, not only at home but in the way the global financial market sees us. A general strike is certainly not going to improve people’s perception of our workforce or the confidence that the workers themselves are feeling at present. I think they are crazy in not considering the consequences and merely focusing on their own selfish ends. What they don’t seem to realise is that they could be cutting off their own noses to spite their face.

Paul’ the computer’ will be coming on either Friday or Saturday for another session. We’ve gone back a year since I took over the blog entirely from Richard Morris and in my early days I did not always get the blog attachments right, so. Paul is kindly going through and tidying up the old entries. This is important as he has kindly agreed that as and of when I ‘shuffle off my mortal coil’ he will make three DVDs of the actual blog as published, including the interesting or entertaining attachments, at the end of the daily entries. One for each of the children and one for’ my lovely’, although they will already have a paper copy of the blog diary it is not the same as having the published blog itself, not only with the attachments, which in themselves can be pretty amazing ,but also all the various comments and my replies over the past 3 to 4 years. Then, when the blog itself finally disappears from the net, which I imagine it must at some time, we will have our own historic record.

Reverting for the moment to strikes, of all the European nations, France has to be number one, or very close to it.

However, much as we malign the French, they do know how to build trains!

27 November 2011

What on earth happened to yesterday?. I sat down in front of my laptop this morning expecting to edit yesterday’s blog and found that I had not written one. What I normally do is to prepare the blog the day before I publish it and then read it through the following morning, make any small editing amendments and then publish it. I recall now that yesterday I was having so much trouble with Dragon – for example ,in dictating this entry the cursor just shot up seven lines and started inserting my dictation into my previous entry. So after about 15 attempts I gave up and forgot to go back later in the day to have another try, that’s the sort of problem with which I have to put up. If I don’t keep an eye on the screen all the time anything might happen.

As I said very little happened yesterday, in any event, and unless something is happening or somebody’s coming here, one day is much the same as the next. Once I am showered, dressed and deposited in my study chair, I will stay there for next 14 hours, quite often not knowing which day of the week it is. (I remember when I did my law play in Budapest, – see 19July and 7 Nov .2010 entries. I had been cryogenically frozen and was thawed out in order to sit as an arbitrator between some earthlings and some aliens. When I appeared in the room, covered in frost,, in order to give verisimilitude to the performance, we contrived for me to appear .as if I had been teleported in and my first line was “where am I ,I don’t even know what day of the week it is”. Some wag in the cast had infiltrated the audience and shouted out “He never did!”)

Fortunately writing the blog and dealing with my e-mails keeps me busy until lunchtime. The only extra thing I did yesterday was to go through the Lord’s application form for tickets for the matches this forthcoming summer. (‘How’s zat’ for optimism!)

All members get preferential treatment over the public in buying tickets, for their guests. On the more popular days, such as the Saturday of any Test Match, even the members are put into a ballot, . so it is completely potluck in what tickets you get.. This year we start off in May with a Test Match against the West Indies, then there is a one-day match against Australia before the South African team arrive for their Test Match in August. Incidentally, this year, the Saturday of the Test Match against South Africa falls on my 78^th.birthday and I have invited my son-in-law and my two grandsons there if I am well enough which will be grand, as I always wanted to take the boys who up to I t now. Previously, I didn’t think were old enough to sit there for 8 hours, but their dad tells me they are keen, so we will see .I just hope that I am successful in the ballot for that particular day.

Last year I invited 14 guests, for various matches over the season and, like this year, had to make the decision in January, about what tickets I needed I really did not have any idea whether I would be strong enough to go to Lord’s, so I sent everyone their own tickets to meet me in the ground or, if I wasn’t there, enjoying my friends company. Well, I’m still here, one year later, faced with the same dilemma. Undoubtedly weaker than I was this time last year. However, I’m not going to stress myself out about it again and will only invite two or three of my best pals. Yesterday, I checked with my oldest friend, 93-year-old Geoffrey Hanscombe, to see if he thinks he will be up to it. ‘By Jove’, he said, ‘absolutely’ in a good strong voice, so I suspect he will be fine. Apart from the momentous decision on who to take nothing much of note happened today so this is a welcome short entry for the reader.

26 November 2011

I really can say that today was not my own. After my early-morning struggle with my Dragon which was in even an even more mischievous mood than normal, Harriet, the boss of Ross nursing, came round to check that all was well and to make one too fine adjustments to the jobs of her carers carried out on each visit. I can say without reservation that both Alice and I are delighted with the service we are receiving – the boys and girls come around here are fun and efficient.

After Harriet and left was time for lunch and then Craig’ the computer came round pursuant and was here until 4.00. Then my lovely came in the and a bit of a chat and so the day went by uneventfully.

Seeing the obvious thrill oF surfing in yesterday’s entry (on what incidentally I was never very good) I was reminded of my own exploits in Australia 30 or so years earlier, not in surfing but in water skiing. Having a speedboat at Barwon Heads, a favourite weekend retreat from Melbourne where we spent quite a lot of time in the summer water skiing. After a couple of years or so I became quite proficient. In fact I could waterski backwards on a mono ski, ski on a ski with no keel and do a double act with another skier involving a board and a stool. I was pretty good and knew it!

My job was such that I moved from state to state living for around six months in every state capital except Perth.When I went to work in Brisbane, in Queensland, I spent quite a lot of time in Surfers Paradise, which, in those days, was just beginning to take off as a tourist resort. I was determined to keep up with my water skiing so in my lunch hours I used to go down to a local lake where I had arranged to have half an hours skiing. In those days I wore, long white socks, starched white shorts and a short sleeve shirt and tie. Of course the temperature in the summer in Surfers Paradise was quite high, I can’t remember just quite high but nevertheless it certainly wasn’t suit weather for the office.

My practice was to go to the lake, two or three times a week, for a prearranged workout. I would removed my long socks and shoes, sit on edge of the quay, holding the end of the rope and as the boat came round, and the rope tightened, step onto the water and off I would go. After two or three circuits I would drop the rope and glide smoothly into the shore step out of my ski, dry my legs put my socks and shoes again and go back to the office. In other words I was very cocky about my skill as a water skier and was confident enough to wear my clothes believing that I could confidently believe the only thing that would get wet when my legs, below the knees.

The boys driving the boat, not too fine a point on it, got pissed off with this cocky pommy and were determined to put me in my place. On this particular day I went my usual routine, socks and shoes off, as usual stepped off the quay and started to ski. Unbeknown to me the had got a much more powerful boat than usual and instead of driving round in front of me and turned back towards me forcing me to ski away from them, in a wide circle, in order to keep the rope tight, before going on their way. Whis meant that I had to go through something like 270°, at around 85 miles an hour in order to get back on my line. It was so fast that my cheeks flapped, my eyes streamed so I couldn’t really see where I was going and the ski felt as though I was going across a rough concrete road. Inevitably three quarters of the way around this circle I fell off. I bounced like one Wallace bouncing bomb in the Dambusters. I must have made at least three or four bounces before I actually entered the water which, as it had been planned, was where all the slimy weeds grew. I was complete a smashed and the when the boys came back to fish me out they dumped this filthy, slimy, but contrite, pommy, unceremoniously in the boat drove me back to the shore, laughing their heads off as they went. I quickly saw the funny side of it and joined in. We became firm friends after that but in the meantime I had no choice but to go home and get some clean clothes. I had certainly learned my lesson, never to show off, again particularly in front of Aussies.

30 years or so later, in Wales, Williams William-Wynne invited son Miles to waterski. In fact Smiler had never done it before, but being young, quickly picked it up and after half an hour or so was reasonably proficient on two skis. I sat on the beach watching the young people going through their paces. In the end, before he packed up, William turned to me and asked if I would like to have a go I said, trying to look modest it looked rather fun and I would like to have a try.

Of course, I never mentioned the fact that at one stage I was considered to be quite proficient at it. My plan was to start on two skis and, as soon as I was up, drop the right ski, adroitly slide my foot into the second foothold on the left ski and surprise the youngsters by giving them a display of my skilful skiing.

The first snag came when William insisted that I wore a life jacket. I had skied for years and in my youth and would not have been seen dead in one. However, not wishing to give the game away, I acceded. After a little instruction from William I entered the water with the two skis on, grasped the rope and lay back, with the two skis protruding above the water, before giving the nod for the boat to move off. As it happened it had a powerful engine capable of 45 knots.

As William thrust the throttle forward, in attempting to get straight up, my legs parted and practically split me in two. I felt rather like a butcher’s carcass that was being cut in half with a cleaver. They dragged me out and dumped it on the shore in a considerable degree of pain, making all the usual noises about bad luck and good effort for the first time, and all that. I thought this is utterly ridiculous and after I had recovered, I insisted on having another go. I was still determined to give them a dazzling display of my skilful skiing. This time when they gunned the motor forward I wobbled my way up onto two skis and, with my bum sticking out, very shakily completed one circuit before falling off in front of the admiring crowd of youngsters who congratulated me on a good effort for a first attempt!

I never did tell them about my previous exploits as a master waterskier. What I had overlooked was that in the intervening 30 years or so, a) I was that much older and be) my muscles were completely unused to the stresses and strains put upon them suddenly after such a long break. So much for showing off. I hope I learned my lesson!.

Here is the most appropriate piece of media I have available at present reflecting this entry. Please forgive the rather coarse language but if I tone it down it rather loses the point. Click here to open it

25 November 2011

Readers will recall my visit to the Arthur Rank Hospice some two or three weeks ago where amongst other things I saw wi a pain consultant, Dr Mark Abrahams, a Consultant Anaesthetist in Pain Management, Administered a suprascalar nerve block in my shoulder.

In other words an injection above the shoulder. Mark said, at the time, the this move to ease the pain he would consider repeating the process in a few weeks time. Well, there is no doubt that for at least two weeks if not three I have been totally free from pain in the shoulder now is beginning to creep back but nothing like so intense as it was previously. Yesterday I received a telephone call from the Pain Management Clinic checking on my progress and as a result I’m now booked in for a further injection only in the New Year.(I am impressed with his follow-up)

The other two areas I was feeling pain at the time were in my knees and in one hip. I cannot imagine an injection in the shoulder would have any effect on either of these two areas of the body. However my knees seem completely free of pain at present and I can only put this down to some exercises that ‘my lovely’ has being doing for me on my legs each morning.

Whilst I am talking about my medical condition readers will recall the district nurse being so alarmed at the purple colour and as a result the doctor was called in to look at them without delay. I am glad to report that the resumption of the nifedipine has restored them to a healthy looking pink colour but this still does not stop feeling like blocks of ice particularly in the evening. My dear son Smiler is always asking me what I want for Christmas so I have suggested a foot muff. I found a perfectly good electrically heated one on the net so I shall suggest that as a Christmas present.

Doreen ‘the secretary’ came in today to catch up my filing and at the same time we managed to print off a further 50 copies of the blog for the children hard copy.

The trading standards office rang yesterday to say that they were on the case but were not making much progress because of the lack of cooperation by Dragon. As it is precisely the point that I’m complaining of I would hope they had to all solution that would put a rocket under them. If the trading standards office proved to be as intransigent the Dragon peeple I might just as well have continued to chase them myself

The situation in Egypt appears to have been resolved by the military council stepping aside in favour of the former prime minister who will oversee a general election in a few months time. The global economic situation remains as tenuous as ever. One interesting aspect of it is widely Euro has held up so well against the British pound. I can only think that they financial speculators consider that we are just as shaky as the rest of Europe which is not very encouraging.

This has been such a boring entry click here for some excitement.