Tag Archives: Julia

Julia’s New Hobby – Possibly

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Owl carving – Sherwood Forest

Got up at 7am. It’s not a big deal, I sometimes get up earlier. Old habits and insomnia both die hard. What was a big deal is that now I’m retired I usually leave my waking time to chance. Today was a day for setting the alarm. I made breakfast, of fruit and cereal and then, to be on the safe side made a breakfast cob using black pudding and bacon. It’s a bit like asking Dr Jekyll Chef Hyde to make breakfast – the two sides of healthy.

Julia, in case you are wondering where my soulmate and partner in crime is in all this, got herself dressed for a hard morning’s wood turning before eating both breakfasts. When you aren’t sure what the day is going to bring, it is best to be prepared.

I dropped her off at Railworld a little before 8.30. I don’t really understand it, it’s part railway museum and part wildlife haven, and to get to it you drive through what used to be the fairground/car park and underneath the railway arches. In all the time I lived in Peterborough previously (about 15 years) I only remember going through the arches once or twice. In those days all that was there was additional parking and wasteland.  Today, as I left, a kite wheeled over the haven. This is twice I’ve seen kites over the city and I’ve only been there half a dozen times during daylight.

Sherwood Forest – carving

I expect she will come back either enthusiastic for more woodturning or despondent over some aspect of it. She doesn’t tend to do middle ground.

Meanwhile, I had a rather crowded and fume-filled journey home. It’s a small city, and the traffic is not heavy. It’s just that at 8.30 my route home is a bit of a nightmare. I could possibly make it quicker by finding a way round, but I’m still a bit shaky at navigating round Peterborough because many of the roads didn’t exist when I last lived here. There is plenty of margin for me to get lost.

The post arrived, bringing a cheap medallion with it. It’s an aluminium medallion depicting a smelting plant in Bahrain. Aluminium is a fascinating and widely used metal. It’s only about 150 years ago it was considered to be more exclusive than gold. Now we use it for wrapping food and making window frames. I have about fifteen aluminium medallions depicting aspects of the aluminium industry in my collection. I have a list of others I am looking for, and a handful of aluminium coins and medallions as examples of what has made from aluminium over the years. One day I will do a presentation on aluminium for the Numismatic Society.

But for today I must write a couple of paragraphs for a friend who is writing a book on Nottinghamshire Numismatics, send something off for the society Facebook page and then, probably, get to work on my next presentation – The Dark Side of the Medal – which is due in may next year. May is not a long way off as I need to test it in April to avoid a repetition of the debacle last time I did a talk.

Acorn Sculpture – Sherwood Forest

Meanwhile, I’m working on a scheme regarding a soundtrack, dry ice and (possibly) a cape.

Catching Up – In Sickness and in Health

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Bumble bee on bramble flowers – Sherwood Forest

First things first – Julia is still not well. A few of the dissolving stitches have now come out, but they should have done that weeks ago. The car continues to pull, though it is now dry. She has a bit of trouble breathing. However, we are hoping that the visit to the outpatient’s clinic early next week will give her some answers and a definite course of action.

Meanwhile, she had another visit to A&E on Sunday night (from 6pm to 6pm), but this time travelled in style as we were conveyed by ambulance.

This time, though, it wasn’t her who was ill, it was me.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Basically, as she pointed out, she married an idiot. And I can’t dispute that. I started with a bit of a fever on Friday and Saturday, fighting it off with Paracetamol and sleep. It seemed to work, but on Sunday it came back with a vengeance. Eventually, after being told to go to A&E by someone Julia rang on  a helpline, I refused and went to bed. When she woke me again, I was incoherent and couldn’t actually stand. We knew what it was, because  I’ve had it before. I’ve also been told off by the doctor before. You can’t fight off sepsis with cold cures.

This time it really did a job on me and though we caught it quickly, I should have caught it a lot quicker. If I had, I might not have had to spend four nights in hospital.

Wild flowers

I will tell you about it later. I’ve been at the computer for an hour and am now tired and need to go to sleep. Yes, I’m that weak. On Monday I couldn’t lift a puzzle magazine. On Tuesday  I couldn’t finish a puzzle. On Wednesday they started making more sense and I was getting quite good. By Thursday I was bored of puzzle mags but still lacked the concentration to read a book. I actually ordered groceries online using my phone, but could only manage to do about a third of it before breaking off for a nap.

After returning home I have chatted, dozed, watched TV, eaten cheese on toast and tried catching up on my correspondence. Now, defeated again, I am off to bed.

More stories tomorrow.

Pigs and flowers

And Back to Hospital . . .

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Breakfast – a meal to set you up for a difficult day, or even a heart attack. This one lacks bubble and squeak and black pudding because I’m trying to become more health conscious.

Julia has been struggling. She is much better now but it took more upheaval to accomplish anything., and I ahd to enlist the help of my sister.

Basically, since she had to return to A&E last week, she has shown little improvement, has bled several times in the night and from Monday onwards, has been starting to look old and tired. I haven’t known whether to worry or not, and have stuck to my approach of changing dressings when necessary and being generally upbeat. It was, to be honest, getting more difficult. Finally, by Wednesday, she was ahving trouble talking and staying awake.

However, this is a woman who had to leave school at 16 to support her family but eventually ended up with two degrees, a postgraduate diploma, worked in fields, kept us going in the Quercus days by working a Sunday shift that started at 5am, brought £miliions in grants in to Nottingham and had a couple of babies. She hates being seen as weak and would rather die than admit she needs help.

By 6pm on Wednesday it looked like she was going to achieve her ambition. Fortunately, my sister had popped round with cake and a water pistol (that squirrel is in trouble now)  and joined me in bullying Julia into going back to A&E. I will spare you the boring details, particularly as they left me at home (I tried a token protest, but didn’t try too hard). It included included a lot of time waiting for results, having a camera inserted into her throat via her nose, blood tests, drugs, more blood tests, a scan and some other messing about.

Haddock Special at the Fishpan, Scarborough

The conclusion is that she needs to go to an ENT clinic. The doctor said that the wait is about three weeks but he will ensure she is called within a week. She was told this two weeks ago. They will probably have to open up the wound again to clear it out, as there is a large haematoma in there which is causing problems (again, we were told that two weeks ago). The wound also needs restitching as it is untidy and has not healed. Two weeks ago she was given antibiotics to prevent infection. Last week, she was given different antibiotics because she was feeling rough. This week she was taken off antibiotics because the gasping for breath (after checking heart and lungs) seems to be a side effect of the antibiotics.

Correct, it would be hard to make this stuff up.

And, when she goes in for work on the wound, they will probably glue the tear in the vein. The ENT specialist on week one said it should have been done. They said so today too. It’s a typical sign of a service under pressure – they never have time to do it properly, but they do have time to do it again. She’s been in A&E three times when once should have been plenty.

And finally – the thing they stick down your nose to photograph your throat (her vocal chords are looking good she says, though I’m not sure what she’s comparing them to) costs £350 and is single use only. They throw them away. I said she could have brought it home so I could attach it to the computer for examining coins. Yes, of course I’d stick it up my nose too, wouldn’t you? I can’t see why they couldn’t just wipe it down with an anti-bacterial wipe. It’s not like you need to be very sterile with something you’re shoving up a nose, is it? Obviously you’d have to make sure they were a distinctive colour so they didn’t get mixed up with the colonoscopy kit, but apart from that, it would be quite simple and save a fortune.

My sister, incidentally, was surprised to be asked to press some buttons during the process. While the doctor was guiding the camera my sister had to press buttons to set the photography up. I’m sorry I missed that.

Just one last thing and I will let you go. Julia has a fan club. She was explaining her problem to a junior doctor when they interrupted her, saying  “I know who you are, I’ve heard all about you.” Apparently in medical circles she is  spoken of in awed tones as the only person known to have cut their throat with a plant pot.

We had salad tonight – pear, blue cheese, leaves, walnuts,  spring onion, cucumber, chive flowers, tomatoes. We could have had more, but Julia didn’t feel hungry and I hate salad.

 

 

All is Right with the World

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I’m feeling perkier today. Well, mostly. It’s tailing off a bit now but I have a pot of soup on the go  (tomato, onion, celery, mixed herbs and chilli for those who are curious) so I will eat well fo9r tomorrow’s lunch. I just realised I forgot the garlic. Ah well!

Julia has just returned with three night bags. It has been a complicated story.

After leaving hospital without enough bags, as mentioned in  previous post, I summoned up the energy to find some more.

The Scallop at Aldeburgh

First I rang the District Nurses. As a service they have been trimmed back over the years, but I know they have spare bags and I know they travel in the area so they seemed the logical place to start. I didn’t get the full query out of my mouth before their receptionist gave me a new number to call and cut me off. ten out of ten fro efficiently avoiding work. Nought out of ten for everything else.

The new number was the Continence Service. I know from bitter experience that they are useless, and they failed again. After holding me in the queue at position number three the system told me they couldn’t process my call and cut me off. It then refused to connect me on my next two attempts. Annoying, but nice to have my previous prejudices confirmed. They really don’t do customer service at the Continence Service. ten out of ten for getting up my nose. Zero for Customer Service.

Martello Tower Aldeburgh

Next I rang the Urology Centre and ran into a network of menus giving me different numbers to press. I eventually got through to the PAs of the consultants. Guess what, the one I needed had an automated message telling me there was nobody there to take my call. I’ve probably mentioned before that although I love the urology Centre for many things, efficient admin isn’t one of them.

Next attempt – the Urology ward at the hospital. It took quite a while to connect, but to be fair they are actually doing a job rather than sitting by a phone. The Nurse who answered suggested ringing the District Nurses . . .

When I explained I already had done, she suggested the Continence Service.

Honestly, I’m not making this up.

I explained I had done, and what the result had been.

So she arranged to put some bags into a parcel for me and asked if i was able to travel. I wasn’t, but fortunately Julia was available to solve that problem.

Ten out of ten for the Urology Ward, and ten out of ten for Julia.

 

At Aldeburgh, Suffolk

 

The Knell of Parting Day

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A knell is the sound of a bell rung solemnly. I checked it up before using it. What I don’t know is how you toll a bell solemnly. You just pull a rope don’t you. The solemnity is in the timing of the successive rings, I would have thought, not in the quality of a single ring. Anyway, that’s my thought on it.

Whilst looking at Gray’s Elegy and picking it over for a quote, I noticed that he composed it by reusing some lines for another poem he had tried to write. I’m glad to find it’s not just me that treats old and unsuccessful poems as raw material for new ones.

Where does all the time go? Twilight has arrived, the sky is holding just a hint of colour behind a veil of grey cloud and it is time to eat and change pace.

That’s probably what I miss most about Julia not being here, Well that and there seems to be more washing up to do. And no tea appears magically by my elbow as I write. However, without her there is definitely no change of pace. I get up. I do what I like. I watch what I like on TV. Nobody wakes me up to tell me to stop snoring. And then it’s time for bed.

She, meanwhile, has been to a baseball game and is currently at a Mother’s Day BBQ celebration hosted by the family of Number One Son’s partner.  They are spit roasting a whole pig. Canadian BBQs are very different to the ones we have in Nottingham.

I’m back from eating now. Quiche and salad, in case you were wondering. The same quiche and almost the same salad as I had yesterday. No, I haven’t developed a sudden love of salad, but we had it in the fridge and I hate wasting food. I am also pretty sure I would hate dying, so it’s probably time to start eating a healthier diet.

Tomorrow I will, I think, start with cereal and fruit. Lunch? It’s definitely time to get round to that mushroom soup. Evening meal is fish finger sandwiches. They are the ones that are marketed as containing Omega 3 and being good for you. This time next year it will be something else that is good for me, so I will just have to read the internet and try to keep up. I’m eating more sandwiches and fewer vegetables now that Julia isn’t here.

Shopping Problems

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I really should have planned better, but I just kept ordering as usual until Julia went to Canada. I currently have an unexpected loaf of bread (though this is partly due to not needing sandwiches too), a mushroom surplus and an oversupply of avocadoes. I also have a surfeit of sausages,  a pile of carrots and more salad type things than I can contemplate without feeling queasy.

My soup plans have been shelved as I need to eat at least one avocado tonight to keep things in order, and I also have sausages to eat. Mushrooms can wait. They are holding up well and the worst thing a mushroom can do is deteriorate quietly and make you feel guilty.  A sausage, left to its own devices, can be fatal, and I don’t like the  idea of botulism roulette.

Today, the first proper day of my retirement, has been marked, as I feared it might be, by doing very little. It is gathering momentum but the problem is that I tend to get active as the light declines, work in darkness and then sleep during the day. It worked during lockdown, but that was an extended holiday. As a strategy for the rest of my life, it has certain problems. It’s fine for cats, but, let’s face it, they have humans to do their shopping for them and they don’t have doctors suggesting seeing them at 8.30am.

Today I have eaten, watched TV, read, charged my electrical equipment, realised I have lost my Kindle again, washed up and texted and emailed Julia. She is enjoying herself, she has seen black squirrels and the weather is being kind. She has not yet seen a blue jay or eaten poutine. I am clearly going to have to text and tell her to get on with it.

 

Hake and Chips in Cromer. Compared to poutine this is health food.

Another Senior Moment/Forgotten Title

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Julia, South Pier, Lowestoft, Suffolk

The day started with porridge, fruit and toast. I’m really trying to give toast up on weekdays but Julia keeps making it. Eventually, I suppose, I will have to start refusing it, but I like toast and I don’t like to waste food. I could, I suppose, just scrape off the marmalade but without marmalade there is little point in toast so I may as well just give it up. Really it’s just a delivery system to facilitate the eating of melted bitter, cheese or marmalade. Nobody I know would want a piece of dry toast, though if any of you, I’d be happy to know.

It continued with a trip to the dentist to drop Julia off, followed by a twenty minute interlude writing notes in the car park at the surgery before it was time for my blood test. This went well – two attempts on one arm with no success, but the first attempt on the second arm struck blood and we soon had three full tubes. It was a big day today, I had a special envelope from my last trip to Rheumatology and that needed two tubes. It had red writing on it, so it must be important. I got weighed while I was there. I’ve lost 8 lbs in the last eight weeks. Not spectacular, but a useful loss. No stupid diet, just ate a little less. I make no grandiose claims, and may yet disappoint myself, but at this point I am happy with this loss.

Julia on the patio

I’m writing this to the accompaniment of whistling, clattering scaffolding and the low annoyance of a radio. Yes, it’s building season again. The young couple next door are having something done, though I don’t know what. They are always having something done. The people diagonally across the road are having a loft extension. I sometimes wonder why people buy houses in this street if they need so much changing.

Julia just rang. She just bought an advance ticket for her Canada trip. Nottingham to Norwich and then on to London is just £28. Yes, £28. She was amazed. The man in the ticket office was so surprised he double checked it. It seems that there’s an offer on. At least part of the Canada trip is going to be cheap. She’s on her way home from town now. I am going to do the washing up. Then I expect we will sit in the front room, watch TV and (in my case) nap. There are worse ways to spend my time.

Love Locks at Bakewell

 

 

Return to Cromer

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Cromer Pier – Julia took it with her phone. Annoyingly it is better than the shot I took when we last visited, and I used a camera.

Julia has returned from her jolly to Norfolk. She reports that the Fish and Chip Restaurant where we dined is still there but has dialled itself back to be a top-class purveyor of ordinary fish and chips. It was more complicated when we dined there and though it was a great place to eat, we felt the experience of eating less common fish (she had some form of dogfish and I had hake) left something to be desired. There is a reason why cod and haddock are popular and the others are rarely seen. Fish and Chips at Cromer

Cromer – on our last visit

I said in my original post that Julia said she would go back again. I said I probably wouldn’t. Five years later (five years – where does the time go?) we both did what we said.

I notice that I also referred to the hake as tasting very fishy. I was being polite. It gets great write-ups in fish recipe sites for having a superior flavor to cod but this wasn’t my experience. It might have been a bad bit of fish, as I remember it as verging on unpleasant. I suppose I would see it differently if I had hake that needed selling.

The top picture is from No 1 Son. Julia put it on her Facebook page and several people wrote in to say it was awesome to see her in this seagoing gear. Others realised she was just sticking her head through a hole in a board. This goes some way to confirm my suspicions about the intelligence of many Facebook users.

They went round the Henry Blogg Museum while they were there. That was what led to Julia sticking her head though the board (she can’t resist them, I have several others like this somewhere) plus the stained glass window shot.

Although Henry Blogg is the famous one, there were many heroic lifeboatmen. Mainly they were modest men who performed acts of great gallantry on dark nights in raging seas, sometimes after rowing for hours to get there. If they’d have done it in daylight with drums and flags they would be a lot better known. maybe somebody should write a blog post on the subject.

 

Another Report from Sunday

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It’s been cold today and Julia has been stopped by the police. Twice. I’m ambivalent about which is the most important thing to lead with. Early winter? My wife’s secret life as a delinquent? Tricky.

Julia went down to the laundrette and was, as I may have mentioned, stopped twice. I may have to stop writing “SWAG” on the laundry bag. The first pair stopped her and asked her name. The second pair stopped her about quarter of  mile away and again asked her name. When she was asked the second time she asked why she was being stopped and they said they were looking for a woman answering her description. The description? “Wearing a green top”. Some days you just have to stand back in wonder and admire the complexity of modern policing methods. I mean, all those years of police know-how and training and the best they can do is ask “May I ask your name?” On the second stop she nearly said “Yes.” just to see how things would go. But being a good and sensible citizen, she told them without sarcasm. It seems that they were looking for  woman who had been reported missing.

It wasn’t me. I’d registered she was taking longer than usual but she’d made bacon sandwiches before going out and I was writing, so the quiet time was a bonus. I know how to use a kettle so it’s unlikely I’d have considered her “missing” until the washing up bowl became full.

Meanwhile, and more seriously, I hope they find the missing woman

. Unfortunately, despite all the news on the internet, they never seem to report things like that.

 

Julia on the patio

Today I am using two relatively sophisticated photographs of Julia.

 

Holiday Day 2 Part 2

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The Trees of Sherwood Forest

More Trees of Sherwood Forest

Sunday Sunbeams in Sherwood Forest

Those are links to three posts I did about Sherwood Forest. Some of them seem to be in galleries, so must date from the time I struggled with the new editor. Looking at them I wonder if it my be worth trying again. I just wish they would leave it alone and would keep it simple. I’m here to write, not to become computer literate to keep up with constantly changing systems. My brain is not wired like that.

However, I haven’t come here to complain about WP and modern life.

I just came here to add some links to blogs about Sherwood Forest. I’m sure there must be more, but I have probably omitted the word “Sherwood” from the titles.

Julia is not happy with me. We have, as I may have mentioned once or twice, been married 33 years. Two nights ago she dreamed that I was conduct an affair with another women. This is clearly not a likely scenario as I am a man of great fidelity. I am also lazy, bad at lying and, to be frank, look more like a tramp than a paramour.

What she really took offence a was the fact that I described her as s “squeaky guinea pig”. I pointed out that it was her dream and she couldn’t blame me for what I did in her dream. It clearly irked her though, as she kept going back to it.

It would have been better if I hadn’t added, after holding this conversation half a dozen times, that if I were to describe her as anything in the pet line it would be a hamster because although they are small and squeaky, they are also cutely rotund. I won’t make that mistake again.

And I definitely won’t do my impression of a hamster using my fingers to form cheek pouches.

I thought I’d add some pictures of her looking glamorous to try and dig myself out of this one.

Julia – looking sophisticated in Bakewell