4 May 2010
Geriatric golf day. Sunny but bitterly cold wind. I gave up after 13 holes were found I was doing more riding in Griggsy’s buggy than walking. 110/150 yards seems to be my limit before I needed a rest.
2 May 2010
A last-minute, but always welcome, invitation for Sunday lunch from the W-P’s. Judith is such a splendid cook that one can always anticipate something delicious and we were not disappointed .
As I now have the assistance of my neighbour in updating this blog I am hopeful that from now on it will never be out of date by more than a few days. The main thing I need to learn is how to do is how to add, what I have always described to Richard, as the twiddly bits – the Anecdotes; Jokes; Videos Photos. What I intend to do from now on is, to include them in the text even if they are not ready to be viewed by the reader. This will be obvious if the title is not highlighted in red. As and when these ‘ twiddly bits’ are ready to be viewed the font colour will change.
Today, I finished a fascinating book, given to me by my brother-in-law, Col. Garton Jones, by John Harding, entitled Roads to Nowhere – a South Arabian Odyssey 1960 to 1965. The point being that this was almost the same period of my residence in Aden (late 1959 to early 1964) during which time my brother-in-law also was stationed there the Army.  Indeed, I enjoyed a passing acquaintance with the Author, during my 4 ½. years sojourn in Aden.
I have unbounded admiration for the way in which John Harding displays such extraordinary recall of events, of lengthy unpronounceable Arabic names and places and bucket loads of direct quotes of remembered conversations.. I can only think he must have kept a very detailed diary.
On arrival in 1959, I was a 25 year old sole resident partner of a firm of chartered surveyors responsible for building works throughout,  what, we  then called the Persian Gulf.. I visited the places that the author mentions in his book Dhala, Lahej, Mukulla and the Wadi Hadramaut, to mention but a few. What I did not realise was the political turmoil which was bubbling away in all of these places, at one time or another, during this period, and how very dangerous it was at certain times to visit them. Of course, as civilians we were aware of what, in the UK, was known as ‘the troubles’ in Aden. Indeed, my office was situated in Crater, adjacent to an alleyway next to the suq (market). It was from the parliament building, opposite my office, that the so-called terrorists, fired rockets through the alley into the suq before being dispersed by British troops. As a result I had to temporarily close the office, on a number of occasions, to allow the teargas to disperse  sufficiently for the young male staff to continue working. Even this and the evening when a hand grenade was thrown over the wall of the open-air cinema in Khormaksar, whilst we were watching a film, did not really cause much consternation amongst the expats. Had I known then, what I know now, after reading this book, I may not have been so sanguine.
The other extraordinary thing is that we played polo three times a week on an open flat piece of desert on the outskirts of Aden which had no  form of security fence around it and could easily have been mined. Although we were vaguely aware of the possibility I cannot recall any of the players being over concerned about being blown up. Yet this was in a period where almost as many soldiers died in this region as were lost in Falklands, years later.
As I said earlier I entertain great admiration for John Harding’s power of recall in such minute detail and can strongly recommend this book to anyone who may also have been in the region at the time. I cannot resist finishing with a quote from the book which may well become pertinent in relation to our presence today in Afghanistan.
“British dis-engagements from both Aden (November 1967) and Iraq (April 2009) was largely impelled by economic crises and military overstretchâ€.
May Day
I received, from HDTI, a CD beautifully illustrating the first of my inventions in a presentation form. Guy, the director, has already made contact with two major international firms with a view to setting up a presentation for me. Unfortunately he is on holiday for the next couple of weeks so nothing much is going to happen until towards the end of May. I must say though, his colleague Paul Magee, has done a great job in refining, and indeed improving, on. my original design.
As a result of receiving this CD I had a meeting this morning with a long term friend who lives in the same village, Simon Cooke, a one-time patent lawyer, who gave me some very sound advice and contact points to pursue the intellectual property protection on the first of my inventions -the details of which I will be able to disclose shortly.- that I require to have in place before presenting the idea to a third party.
This afternoon that great blog saviour, my neighbour Graham Smith, spent a further three hours with me tidying up and bringing the blog up to date (almost the first time it has been like that since I started writing it a year ago). Graham has very kindly agreed to write for me the Mug’s Guide that I’ve been begging for so long, so that eventually I can take over the whole process myself. In the meantime I am able to release Richard Morris who has been such a star setting up the blog in the first place and maintaining it, despite being under enormous pressure at work and at home. I shall be eternally grateful to him for that.
If we only knew for sure
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Tony and Yvonne were 85 years old and had been married for sixty years. Though they were far from rich, they managed to get by because Tony watched their pennies.
Though not young, they were both in very good health, largely due to Yvonne’s insistence on healthy foods and exercise for the last decade. One day, their good health didn’t help when they went on yet another holiday and their plane crashed, sending them off to Heaven. They reached the pearly gates, and St. Peter escorted them inside. He took them to a beautiful mansion, furnished in gold and fine silks, with a fully stocked kitchen and a waterfall in the master bath. A maid could be seen hanging their favorite clothes in the closet. They gasped in astonishment when he said, ‘Welcome to Heaven. This will be your home now.’ Tony asked Peter how much all this was going to cost. ‘Why, nothing,’ Peter replied, ‘remember, this is your reward in Heaven.’ Tony looked out the window and right there he saw a championship golf course, finer and more beautiful than any ever built on Earth.. ‘What are the greens fees?,’ grumbled Tony. ‘This is heaven,’ St. Peter replied. ‘You can play for free, every day.’ Next they went to the clubhouse and saw the lavish buffet lunch, with every imaginable cuisine laid out before them, from seafood to steaks to exotic deserts, free flowing beverages. ‘Don’t even ask,’ said St. Peter to Tony. ‘This is Heaven, it is all Tony looked around and glanced nervously at Yvonne. ‘Well, where are the low fat and low cholesterol foods and the That’s the best part,’ St. Peter replied.. ‘You can eat and drink as ‘No gym to work out at?’ said Tony ‘Not unless you want to,’ was the answer. ‘No testing my sugar or blood pressure or…’ ‘Never again. All you do here is enjoy yourself.’ Tony glared at Yvonne and said, ‘You and your fucking Bran Flakes. We could have been here ten years ago!’ |
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23 really awful oldies
1. Two blondes walk into a building……….you’d think at least one of them would have seen it.
5. I went to the butchers the other day and I bet him 50 quid that he couldn’t reach the meat off the top shelf. He said, ‘No, the steaks are too high.’
6. My friend drowned in a bowl of muesli. A strong currant pulled him in.
7. A man came round in hospital after a serious accident. He shouted, ‘Doctor, doctor, I can’t feel my legs!’ The doctor replied, ‘I know you can’t, I’ve cut your arms off’.
8. I went to a seafood disco last week…and pulled a muscle.
9. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly. They lit a fire in it, it sank, proving once and for all that you can’t have your kayak and heat it.
10. Our ice cream man was found lying on the floor of his van covered with hundreds and thousands. Police say that he topped himself.
11. Man goes to the doctor, with a strawberry growing out of his head. Doc says ‘I’ll give you some cream to put on it.’
12. ‘Doc I can’t stop singing The Green, Green Grass of Home’ ‘That sounds like Tom Jones syndrome. ‘ Is it common? ‘ ‘It’s not unusual.’
13. A man takes his Rotteweiller to the vet. ‘My dog’s cross-eyed, is there anything you can do for him?’ ‘Well,’ says the vet, ‘let’s   have a look at him’ So he picks the dog up and examines his eyes, then checks his teeth. Finally, he says, ‘I’m going to have to put him down.’ ‘What? Because he’s cross-eyed?”No, because he’s really heavy’
14. Guy goes into the doctor’s. ‘Doc, I’ve got a cricket ball stuck up my backside.’ ‘How’s that?’ ‘Don’t you start.’
16. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh.
17. So I was getting into my car, and this bloke says to me ‘Can you give me a lift?’ I said ‘Sure, you look great, the world’s your oyster, go for it.’
19. Two fat blokes in a pub, one says to the other ‘Your round.’ The other one says ‘So are you, you fat bast**d!’
20. Police arrested two kids yesterday, one was drinking battery acid,  and the other was eating fireworks. They charged one and let the other one off.
21. ‘You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today. They left a little note on the windscreen. It said, ‘Parking Fine.’ So that was nice.’
22. A man walked into the doctors, he said, ‘I’ve hurt my arm in several places’ The doctor said, ‘Well don’t go there anymore’
23. Ireland ‘s worst air disaster occurred early this morning when a small two-seater Cessna plane crashed into a cemetery. Irish search and rescue workers have recovered 1826 bodies so far and expect that number to climb as digging continues into the night.
30 April 2010
I had a lovely day out with son, Smiler. The idea, as much as anything, was to give a brief respite to carer Number one..We drove through the picturesque Lavenham to Sudbury in Suffolk to visit Gainsborough’s House. It has a very fine collection of his painting and as well some of the artists associated with him.(including a rather strange pale Ruebens). Smiler is particularly interested in this artist as he was a contemporary of the Welsh artist, Parry, who is the subject of Smiler’s very beautiful art book which was published last year.
The house itself is in fine condition and was obviously quite smart in its day. Gainsborough had no money and was the son of a weaver who he had married well and was therefore able to live in reasonable style. Fortunately the museum. had installed a wheelchair lift so walking around the exhibition was no great problem for me. We then had lunch at a little cafe nearby before stopping off in a pub garden for coffee and a cigar.
A delightful excursion allowing some of that, so essential, quality time between father and son
On the home front the boys had finished the wheelchair path to house and the wet room now only awaits the floor which I gather will be laid next Tuesday
29 April 2010
Graham Smith very kindly came round this afternoon to get me started on WordPress so that I can eventually make all my own entries on this blog. According to Richard the text is no problem, it is what I choose to describe as the ‘ twiddly bits’ – the Anecdotes; Videos; Photos and Jokes which include photos -which can apparently take hours.
28 April 2010
Work continues on the wet room and  the path and the engineer came and fixed the chair -it turned out to be just a loose cable.
I received an e-mail today from Patrick Joyce who has been selected by the MND Association as a serious face of MND. Patrick is an artist who was diagnosed pretty much the same time as I was. He can still walk are as use of his hands and arms although like mine they are limited. Despite this Patrick has decided that, before he dies, he will paint 100 portraits, of, what the MND Association described as Incurable Optimists. He has completed three portraits – his wife, his urologist and Sarah Ezekiel, last year’s Face of MND, who is the subject of ‘ Sarah’s Story.’ Patrick has done me the honour of asking if I will become the fourth subject. As I said in my reply, I wondered if I really qualified but, not wishing to be churlish, I agreed. As requested I have sent some head and shoulder photographs for him to look at. If these are not satisfactory I would try to get Smiler take one or two more when he comes on Friday.
27 April 2010
Son Smiler’s birthday. He went off on the day with Kimberly so I shall catch up with him later. It was the most beautiful day, really quite warm and the joy to join the geriatrics at the golf club. I confess I’ve probably rode in the buggy with Griggsy, a little more than I actually walked.
Disaster this afternoon when my lovely NHS ‘recliner/ stand-up’ share drops back in the up position making impossible to use. I telephoned the OT and she promised they would attend to it shortly. Fortunately I had just purchased a couple of UpEasy cushions which work on a gas filled hydraulic cylinder to raise a sitter to a standing position by applying a light pressure on the arm of the chair, so I was able to sit down. The point being that Alice is finding it increasingly difficult to lift me out of a chair as I am a complete deadweight and I am anxious not to strain her back.
26 April 2010
the house seems to be swarming with workmen. Conversion of the downstairs bathroom into a wet from proceeds apace, albeit rather slowly than we would wished. Paul and Bill. Our faithful hound handymen started today relaying the entire front path, currently aged in oh handmade bricks filled in between pieces of broken paving slabs with pieces of bricks, many of which have crumbled and become slightly tricky to negotiate.
I went to Solar Park, near Cambridge ,with Bill and bought 100 old handmade hard red bricks which will form the edge to the path of which any wheelchair wheels can run when the day comes.. The repair of this path there is long overdue. I believe that the original paving in front of the house was 18th century as the date 1780 is carved into one of the bricks. Certainly the bricks could be that old but the date may well be carved by some young wag who lived here in the past.
D. Mark Cato
D. Mark Cato