Flying on the crutches !

A wetish Thursday.
We have had our American cousins staying for a couple of days, which has been enjoyable.
Megan's & my maternal grandmother's, Harriet (born1878) & Rose(born1880), were sisters, born in Blisworth, Northants.
Mabel's 95 year old mother & another cousin still live near there; Mabel has done Sterling work on the family tree & has tracked most cousins down.
John is an army veteran & most entertaining.
Yesterday we visited Baddesley Clinton, a NT moated manor house near Solihull & had lunch in the garden.
G had an appointment with his consultant at 4.00pm; all is going well & he can walk quite well with crutches.
He has accepted that he will not be cycling across Zambia in week's time though.
There will be other opportunities for cycling marathons, I'm sure.
Thanks to MK for the liquorice - G was very pleased. That will keep him going for a while!

W & MK's computer is being delivered this morning, when that is safely on board I should go & clean the church - almost as good as a visit to the gym, if you work hard at it.
M & J have just phoned; J has left his medication in the fridge - plans may change!

Continuing aj's theme, today I shall shop for, 7 may buy a crunchy cucumber....

Wet, wet,wet!

How about a relevant pop group titles for a while - I can think of at least five, off the top of my head.
Rain stopped play this morning, so I tended to G's needs & cleaned upstairs this morning, then went to solihull to take a heap of clothes to the Charity shop, food shop & go to the gym this afternoon, by which time it had stopped raining.
G is on the mend; yesterday afternoon he mowed the lawns, today he drove the lotus round the village & his horrible foldable bike around the yard.
He now knows that the saddle did damage!
All is ready for our American cousins, John & Megan,tomorrow - M&S lunch in the fridge & cake baked, as in "if I'd known you were coming......."

Does anyone out there have one of my Denby rice bowls?
There are only three here & they don't seem to sell them anymore - I may have broken it.
I don't remember bad bits anymore, except by accident, a survival tactic!
Time for camomille tea & bed.

We've topped the 10000. Brill.
Hence the celebration with a really boring blog.
The day wasn't though, really.
I nearly bought a pink T-shirt.

Whew!

This was my fault, I told him to smile, T was in shock & I trembled.

Reading the instructions on the hand cleanser.

Reading the post - no cheques!

Today looks like another fantastic day - blue sky, bright green foliage in all directions, the bluebells are in full bloom & our resident cock pheasant has moved in two lady friends. They are all feeding on the field, under the study window, awaiting this mornings offering of burnt toast.
OK, so it takes a special skill to burn toast with a Dualit toaster.
I have it!
It's a travelling rug, not a kilt.

G is on the mend, slowly. He can move around a little with a great deal of groaning. This does enable me to know where he is, when not in bed!
I am considering a new blog, "Arrrggghhh", on which to post the daily photos that I am required to take so that he can view his damage from all angles (almost).
I feel that this could become compulsive viewing & I may win "Blogger of the decade".

On Friday P brought Thomas over here for the day, we played & had a nice snooze on the settee before returning to Solihull to collect Jessie, play some more & have tea.
In the evening, G rose from his sick bed to go to a Tamworth Boxing Club do at DMP, guest of CB.
I fetched & carried, almost literally. The glass of wine I had planned with my "Count on us" meal is still in the bottle.

Yesterday I spent most of the morning on today's sermon then steam cleaned the floors downstairs before lunch & running errands for G.
If anyone fancies eating off the floor, this is the place to come!
We went to Gill & Andrew's for a meal last night, with Carolyn & Graham - a lot of catching up & chuckling.

Up & off to church shortly, just checking on the significance of hot cross buns (G has two ha, ha) Apparently they were moon buns, with the four seasons, before we took them over for the significance of the cross.
We've had moon buns in Asia - I think that they re for new year. Better check.
Steve & Di for dinner tonight - slow cooked shoulder of lamb in tomatoes, herbs & red wine, from May Good Food magazine.
Have a great day in the sun.
(9986 hits - nearly there)

Happy Birthday William!

Shakespeare, that is.
We marked St Georges Day/ Shakespeare's birthday this year by visiting The Meridan hospital in Coventry for G to have an MRI scan & X-rays.
We parked right by the door & borrowed a very nice wheelchair for G's trip around.
There was a Costa Coffee just inside the door & a very pleasant lounge/waiting area.
A most agreeable experience all round. The magazines were crap.
Best laugh of the week, G reappearing from the MRI scan with his shirt mis-buttoned -a direct analogy with the elderly lady in the cardigan/first sign of senility.
Even the radiographer sensed that G rather liked being pushed by a woman. He still has me pushing/pulling him around the house on the office chair. To be honest & charitable, he does have a lot of pain from his groin & can barely stand up.
He is improving.

Yesterday we went to The Sports Injury Clinic at Sutton where G saw Mr Learmonth, one of the top men in shoulders & knees, who sent him for today's tests. He will be going back there for physiotherapy, next week.
Their wheelchair was second rate but the magazines were good.

When not being called upon to nurse, dress, chauffeur, feed, fetch & carry, I have cleaned & polished every inch downstairs, including polishing the silver (brass yet to do)
This is for two reasons: I have not cleaned for too long & we have the newly found American cousins coming to stay next week.
I am pleased with the results, apart from the pile of papers now in the study, awaiting placement.
The lawns are in desperate need of mowing - I may have to do them myself.

What about that budget?
Even A Darling didn't sound convinced.

Whew, another scorcher!

Yesterday's title referred to the weather, not the photos.
G added those this morning, obviously feeling the need for more pity.
In 1, he is modelling the latest neoprene support added to his neoprene collection.
It matches his eyes, as they all do.

On to today, or yesterday as it now is. Having serviced G, waited for the postman to deliver his neoprene, fitted it & taken the required photos, I went to Coleshill to collect the latest G parcel (another watch - watch out W), then onto Solihull to shop.
JS had Green & Black's Easter eggs -75%, very cheap dark chocolate.
Home for a healthy, if late, lunch.
G has rested his leg today,& so he has not ventured downstairs. He is a bit more mobile & cheerful with his support & frozen corn on the cob!
4 DVDs later, whilst I've finished the ironing, G is asleep.
My legs ache, I think from the exercise - I counted 10 times up & down stairs before I went out, it must be 30 by now.
Perhaps I'll run around the reservoir in the morning.
I'm watching a documentary about women & alcohol.
Blimey!
Women over 50 & grannies are not old & past it!!

Whew, what a scorcher!

An idyllic morning.
A spin up to Coleshill in the lotus, in bright sunshine, with the hood down, to play tennis for a couple of hours, & then home to get lunch.
I even played well.
I left G full of porridge & toast, with phones, computers, papers, books & the TV, having phoned the doctors & Nuffield hospital to arrange calls back for appointments for treatment for G.
G showered & managed to get down to the conservatory, with support & wheeling along the flat in the office chair. He is in a great deal of pain from his groin when he moves, in fact he really can't move one leg at all.
Ice packs in the groin have helped, both of us really. G is not at his best when incapacitated, in pain, or when there is an "R" in the month.
The act of strapping an ice pack to his nether regions has brought me some relief.
A visit from Maurice & a couple of phone calls were well received.

Bolognaise stuffed mushrooms (forget Shirley Conran when in need of TLC), salad & olive bread for dinner, upstairs, followed by Ben & Jerrys' ice cream & a 1975 DVD of a Philip Marlowe film with an impressive cast, courtesy of aj & the Daily Mail.
The TV tuning needs some attention (mainly to the instruction manual, I think).

G has an appointment at the sports injury clinic on Wed pm.
We hope that he will be more mobile & generally improved by then.

More good weather on the way. Great.

9889 comments, we may hit the 10,000 this week.
I know that many of you are just hoping for an interesting blog!

whoops!

G beat me to the blog, but then he has been in bed all day, only requiring errands running every 10 minutes or so.

Yesterday G set off early to met 3 of the other folk who will "cycle Zambia", at Rutland water, to cycle two circuits.I was going to go along & perhaps do one lap, but decided to have a day to catch up, having had a busy couple of weeks.I pottered, chatted to aj, then went to Solihull to potter & shop.
I sat down in shop number one, to try on shoes, when I had a phone call from one of the other cyclists to say that G had had a fall & was in hospital in Peterborough.One of them had gone with him, leaving the other two with four bikes on the track & four cars in the car park.

P was at home & A snr & B babysat whilst P drove us to Rutland Water to meet the cyclists, who had loaded the bike on the car, collect G's car & go on to the hospital. G was in a wheelchair, looking rather grey, with a sling, an odd shaped shoulder & a cut knee.Nothing broken.
X rays & notes to go to the local hospital on Monday.When G stood up he found that he couldn't walk & nearly threw up.The staff nurse convinced him that he could walk, but was in pain.We wheeled him to the car, got him in , with some difficulty & came home.He still couldn't walk, but Steve helped him to do an Egyptian sand dance to the door, where he sat on an office chair & so could be wheeled around.
We had fish & chips, having missed all meals since breakfast & set about the journey upstairs, very slowly, in reverse.

G is a little better, but unable to move much.
He has spent a day on the bed with his new TV with built in DVD player, laptop, phone, camera, Sunday Times, painkillers, etc.
P,A, J & T visited this morning bearing liquorice allsorts.He ate them all in about 30 minutes. They haven't had any effect.....yet!
I spent a couple of hours in the garden this afternoon, avoiding "The Dambusters" - it has been a glorious day - perfect for a bike ride.

Many thanks to all those who helped yesterday.G has three weeks to get fit for Zambia - prayers/helpful hints appreciated.
I took the gory photos, at G's direction. There are many more!

We heard the cuckoo for the first time this afternoon - Spring has arrived!

G hits the dirt!

Photos from Minehead.

We had a good weekend outside, G sitting astride the porch roof repairing the bathroom window frame whilst I did some heavy digging & planted some shrubs at the top of the garden.
These have been programmed to grow quickly & luxuriantly so that we cannot see anything of the houses in Back Lane, from the conservatory.
On reflection, I spent Sunday with aj, after church, chatting & reading the papers.
Monday morning was similar, so G must have been out there on his own.
I did garden enthusiastically on Monday afternoon, & then had a hot bath whilst G fetched a takeaway (prawn puri, chicken dhansak, pashwari naan - branching out there!)
Why keep a dog.......

Today I went to Cambridgeshire to see JR. We had a lovely day, talked a lot, went out to lunch, had a nap, tea & home shortly after 9.00pm.
Up early tomorrow for a T & KP day.

Photos will not load. Bother. I'll try again tomorrow.

I'm back!

I spent my week off in Minehead with a big part or the family.
It was really nice, much more attractive than I had remembered from 30 years ago.
We went on the beach nearly every day & built sandcastle cities,(designed by T, built by everyone else),played, drank hot chocolate & ate pasties.
G did long bike rides & we toured the locality on foot, by car & on the steam train.
Minehead is a charming little town with the older town on the hill, a second town on the quay & the new town, where the shops are.
We visited Watchet, Dunster, Selworthy & Cleeve Abbey - all delightful.
We took it in turns to cook the evening meal & scored as in "Come dine with me"
I think it was a draw, eventually.
G fetched a "Chinese" when it was his turn.
I'm not sure whose turn was the fish & chips, but they were very good, cooked to order.
AJ's highlight was the food.
T's was the steam train
G's was getting fit.
I just enjoyed it.
The others haven't yet declared/been asked.

Photos to follow.

Granny days

A couple of days being entertained by Thomas.
Yesterday he walked all of the way across Brueton Park, after making a relationship with the ducks, geese & swans. He then played on the swings & climbing frame, walked up to St Alphege, climbed into his buggy & fell asleep for over an hour. (M&S here we come!)
Today he was played out by the time we went for a walk & after a hug through the wires with Jessie & "Baggie", he fell asleep. (M&S food, here we come)
Back home he dusted all surfaces, including Nanny's & Granny's legs with a nappy bag.
In the meantime......
G drove over in the lotus to fix some skirting boards. He parked behind my car, on the 1 in drive. When the lotus refused to start, we were stuck. G was unable to get out for more superglue or get to the doctors for his Africa inoculations.
Barbara kindly collected G & took him to the glue shop, the RAC spent an hour not starting the car, but managed to jump it backwards onto the road, where it remains.
Tomorrow it will be towed to the garage!
The nurse kindly waited until 6.00pm, G complained that the waiting room was boring; nowhere near as boring as sitting in the car waiting for half an hour!
Some lovely photos on W's Little World.

No comments so I'm on strike!!!

Happy Birthday G.

A visit to the doctor early this morning to find that my BP was raised, so a doubling of my Rampiril for a trial period.
Home for breakfast, G's presents, then Bike on the roof to go to Warwick.
I dropped G at the dentist, parked the car & pottered for an hour, then met G for the onward journey to Bicester.
G had cosmetic recontouring, giving him the smile that he has only dreamed of for many years.It also gave him a frozen jaw & nose (I think that the latter was merely for a joke), so unable to eat.
No birthday lunch then.
We had a bowl of soup at The Wyvale garden centre, bought bird boxes & a mole trap then I collected T & KP & walked home whilst G got the bike down & prepared himself for a 20 mile ride.
T & KP planned the birthday party as we walked home - games, music, cake, etc.
We then partied whilst G went for his bike ride. Small children have a great advantage over grannies when all of the games involve falling on the floor (easy) & then getting up again (not so easy)
We lit the candles, sang "Happy Birthday" to all members of the family & ate some of the cake.

We have dined royally on fish & chips (cooked specially for us), rose & birthday cake.
Thomas day tomorrow.