28/09/2008 by Aileen.

The news is there’s no news. He asked if he could have an op. to sew up the larger of the wounds, but Derry said, although he is a surgeon he would prefer it to heal naturally. John was under the impression that if he had an op. there would be twelve days in bed until the stitches dissolved, then he could start sitting up, and be home in three weeks. Derry explained with an op. it wouldn’t be three weeks, it would be five or six. When John asked how long he would take to heal naturally Derry said there was nothing certain in medicine and wouldn’t be pinned down. So - no news. John’s cheerful. There are six men in the ward although patients come and go. John has been in the longest. There’s lots of banter and they all have their computers and mobiles. Which makes me wonder why other hospitals ban mobiles. Is it so they can get income from the firms who provide phones at exorbitant rates?

I’ve put on 4 lbs over the weeks as I’m just sitting around, so have decided to walk briskly for 20 mins every day (and stop eating Fiona’s delicious food in the evening when I’ve already eaten at the hospital) I’ve also decided to get up earlier and do something with my mornings.

As I missed my Birding class on Wednesday I went for a long walk with camera and bins that day, and saw

dunnock, chaffinch, blue tit, long tailed tit, blackbird, goldcrest,

crow, jackdaw, magpie,greenwoodpecker.

On driving over to Stoke Mandeville I saw a red kite, but that’s an almost daily occurrence.

Forgot to mention my birthday meal. We were shown to a table by a waiter, but a few minutes later he hurried over and asked us to go to a better one - the owner hadn’t realised who the booking had been for.That felt good. Food was absolutely delicious. The place was The White Hart at Fyield. They have just got into The Good Food guide that week after being open three years. I thoroughly recommend it.

For my birthday M and F got me some handcrafted red beads and earrings and took me out for the meal. Ali and family got me a fleece for birding,  SongsWithout Words (Classic FM ) and Talking Heads (Alan Bennet) CD. John got me a plant, and said to go shopping.

On Friday I went shopping in Oxford. Bought some grey size 10 jeans (yes, for me!) and they do fit but I mustn’t put on any more weight. Also got a grey t-shirt and a grey woollen top. All Mand S Per Una range. Must have been in quite a grey mood.

Off to Mass soon, then in to see my Beloved.

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22/09/2008 by Aileen.

Tomorrow I’m 64 - nudge nudge, wink wink. All contributions gratefully received. M and F are taking me out for a meal to The White Hart somewhere in Oxfordshire. Poor old John is languishing in a hospital bed, so won’t be taking me anywhere. (Well, he’s taken me for a ride often enough) I have no problems about growing old - I see it as an achievement. I am in better nick than I was two years ago. On an impulse I joined Cannons Health club just before or maybe on) my birthday. I had high blood pressure then, and was quite overweight. (Just over what was acceptable for my height) I went to the gym religiously at least twice a week for a year, and really toned up, and got stronger. Then I unaccountably stopped. Well, I only really liked the swimming. Then this year I joined Slimming World and lost a stone. I still need to lose half a stone, but am just maintaining weight at the moment. It’s difficult to diet when I’m sitting round for hours and eating hospital food and Fiona’s lovely cooking.

My main problem is I have a really stiff shoulder/arm. Last summer I jumped from one wall to another in our garden, and half way across I froze. This jerked my arm and it’s been bad ever since. Yes, I know I should go to the doctors, but I keep meaning to do the exercises I got at Kingston Hospital physio when it happened before. Maybe tomorrow I’ll start a New Year’s Resolution for my birthday.

I’m going to have exactly what I want at the restaurant - damn the calories, and it’ll be nice to drink as I’m usually the taxi driver.

Here’s to another few years before I pop off.

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19/09/2008 by Aileen.

I drove down to Stoke Mandeville yesterday, and was almost there when my neighbour rang to say she couldn’t get in to feed the cats. I had left the key in the lock and exited through the utility room door. She said she would buy cat food and put it down outside. Anyway I’m going home tomorrow to make sure everything is ok, and coming back down on Tuesday. I had hoped to stay here until Tuesday.

Tuesday is my birthday and M and F are taking me out for a meal in the evening, so it all fits in I suppose. The petrol is costing me a lot though. Well, it’s costing John as I’m putting it on his card lol. I will miss birding on Wednesday, but I should be able to go to Creative Writing on Friday, then back down again.

I have made a start with the Creative Writing OU course. Today I did Activity 2, part of which was to sit outside and really observe what was around, from nearby to the sky. It was NOT meant to be a polished piece of work, so I reproduce it here, unvarnished, with trepidation. (If I can read my abominable writing)

The patio is flagstones, a snail’s silver railway lines tracking around a pot of herbs. The chrysanthemums are like little yellow lollipos, but their leaves are drooping. Autumn is here. The sun warms my neck and I take off my top. No one around. I soak up the last of the summer. That tree has ten trunks coming from its base. Did it grow from one apple - each pip germinating? The leaves are little green doilies. Something has been feasting on it. It’s not an apple tree. I don’t know what it is. I see a squirrel from the corner of my eye. It’s jumpy and furtive. No chance of feeding it I fear. Anyway, they’re vermin. Muntjacs invade the garden but I haven’t seen any today. I hear the birds. A robin  - its mournful song regretting the passing year. That sun is amazing. It warms my six decade skin. The sky in the east hurts my eyes, but further over it is a soft grey blue, like a still sea. A perfectly pyramidal conifer breaks the skyline. I hear the goldcrests. That green woodpecker is around, laughing at me from various corners. ‘Ha ha ha, you can’t see me!’ I don’t care. ‘I’ll see you yet, young man. I’ll see you yet.’

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17/09/2008 by Aileen.

I was a good girl yesterday but it didn’t pay off. As I was home for a couple of days and it was my turn to do church cleaning I went along. When I got home DHL had been with my new OU course materials, and I had to ring them to rearrange delivery. They’re already late due to a printing hiccip apparently (although the course doesn’t really start until next week)

Anyway, here I am hearing imaginary vans outside all the time. Daren’t do anything noisy like cut the grass, or even quiet like having a coffee in the garden, in case I miss them. I’m glad I had a shower this morning.Even that was a bit risky. I SO WANT MY BIG RED BOOK.

(Course is A215, Creative Writing, and although I downloaded the materials last week it’s not the same.)

Anyway, on to the other BUM. John’s consultant saw him on Monday and is very pleased with how the wounds are healing. He said he may have some good news for him next Monday. That probably means he’ll be allowed up for half an hour one day, then an hour, then two, and maybe by the end of the week he’ll be home. A bit too late for my birthday on the 23rd. Maybe I’ll bring a curry or something into the hospital that day.

Anyway, back to van waiting. Think I’ll upload some photos while I’m wating.

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12/09/2008 by Aileen.

In a sense my life is on hold at the moment. I can’t wait until John’s home again and we can carry on with the idyllic life we have created (Oops! that sounds a bit smug!)

At the same time, this is my life. Travelling up and down from Yorkshire to Oxford/Bucks, sitting with John in the afternoon/evening, deciding what to do in the mornings. Luckily I love driving. I am listening to a lot of Radio 4, going off all the ads and short obvious excerpts on Classic FM.Fiona won’t let me do a thing round the house, but I’ve done a little ironing for her. Hope to do some more in a minute. She was away overnight for her mother’s birthday.

I have nearly finished the two Sunday Mass leaflets for children that I have been asked to do. Hope they’re good and I get asked to do some more. Yvonne at Redemptorist Publications said I should be proactive if I want to get anything else published and send in my ideas, but I’m not a vey proactive person. Can I change at 63? 64 in a fortnight.

Gotta go. My bedroom is at treetop level as M and F’s house is built on a slope, and they’re some birds outside just demanding to have their photos taken. Cheers all.

P.S. John is fine except he has toothache now.  The consultant will make a decision about when he can sit up or if he needs another op on 22nd Sept., the day before my birthday.

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09/09/2008 by Aileen.

Had a good day pottering. In the evening I went on Second Life to attend a talk on the LHC project taking place tomorrow. See it’s not all dressing up and mucking around in SL. Here is a photo of the talk.

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08/09/2008 by Aileen.

An introvert draws energy from being alone, while an extravert draws energy from others. Both may enjoy a party, but the introvert will want to go home to bed afterwards, while the extravert will want to go on to a club.

I had a lovely day pottering today. Bit of washing, shopping, cut front lawn,made a start with the writing for Redemptorist Publications. Then Dave (Marshall) rang about the photography club tonight and I went. I felt completely energised by my ‘lonely’ day.

The club was good. Dave (Longbottom) gave an illustrated talk on Photoshop. There were three guests who had learnt about the club at the weekend’s exhibition, and they were very complementary about our setup.

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07/09/2008 by Aileen.

M and F’s friends, Lisa and Rick were staying from Thursday to Saturday, so for an OAP like me the last few days have been pretty hectic. Well, maybe it’s not my age, it’s my personality. INFP on the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator, with really high scores in all those areas, especially introvert (although hardly anyone ever believes this)

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07/09/2008 by Aileen.

Well, it’s been quite hectic this weekend. Even sitting at a bedsite is tiring.

Anyway, I’m on  my own at M and F’s. Fiona went to Cornwall for the weekend with her Bookclub. As it was the summer holidays they decided to read Anna Karenina, but at least two of them didn’t, so before they left on Friday they were ringing up the video shop for the DVD!

Martin went to a birthday party back in Surbiton last night and stayed there overnight.

I went that direction too, but we couldn’t go together. I went to Epsom in the afternoon to Kevin’s. Our cousin Iris was over from Australia. I haven’t met her since her dad’s funeral in ‘91 and we didn’t have much time for personal chat then. She is great fun. So is Mick her husband.  She filled in a few details about her parents’ background and personality that we didn’t know. Oo-er!

Before meeting her I stopped at Kingston and went to John Lewis. Bought a cover for my lovely new Ipod Touch, but although the  assistant assured me it had a protective screen I didn’t realise it was one of those flimsy stick-on plastic sheets. Might have to exchange it for a wallet, but they were bulkier (obviously).

When parking the car I saw a woman I thought I knew. An hour later she was sitting at the next table to me in John Lewis’s café. I could only think she was one of the First Communion parents I’ve met over the years. She had an attractive teenage girl with her. Then I (rather cleverly) looked at the man they were with. It was Tim Sheehan, the deputy head of OLI school. After finishing my skimpy salad, roll and coffee (£8.99) I spoke to them. Tim is now head. It was good seeing them. I had been thinking of calling on someone in the area while I was there, but I always seem to turn up ininvited to Trudy’s. Chris needs about 6 month’s notice so I counted her out. Tricia has retired to Cornwall, and I don’t really know any one else well enough to land on unannounced. I didn’t even call in at the presbytery, as unless Anthony Charlton was there I would porbably be confronted with strangers.

I had to miss my photography group’s exhibition at Skidby this weekend. I could have worked it out to be home, but with Iris over from Australia I decided family came first. I wasn’t even going to exhibit anything, as I haven’t been attending for ages, and had done nothing to help prepare for the exhibition. Kate persuaded me to contribute and kept me in touch my taking a photo of my board. It will be here for 3 weeks.

http://www.orange.co.uk/mms

Id is                                                 t0qyw47yy

Password is                                     vy3he1

Anyway, I only saw John for about three hours last night, and I was a bit niggly with him as I was really tired. He had asked me to buy a little radio with earphones and we were trying to set up some preset stations, but he will not follow instructions and was expecting me to do it. Also, we’re both going a bit deaf and the ward tv was blaring. I must admit he is much more reasonable than I am. He could rationalise why he was niggly, and could also apologise. I was just niggly.

Anyway, I came back to M and F’s to an empty house, and went to bed without going on Second Life! I did, however, access my A215 (Creative Writing) materials which are now online, and made a start with that.

Am now feeling really refreshed with a glass of orange, coffee and toast. Will go to 11am Mass at Headingley, on to John, then back to Yorkshire to pick up post (OUstuff???) cut grass, make a fuss of cats, potter etc.

Wow. What a long post. Wonder who will read to the end?

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01/09/2008 by Aileen.

…during the brief period when John was allowed up in the hospital grounds.

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