A trio of birds and some badgers.

It's getting really wild around here and I don't just mean the weather. Last night I saw the local badgers nosing round my car again. I had heard from a neighbour that they were back again, her pampas grass had disappeared overnight and was trailed across her garden and round past the shed to hole in the stream bank 10m away. I haven't seen them for about 18 months but obviously that set is still in use. I'll have to try and get up about 2am again tonight to watch them although I was going to get some sugar puffs to put out for them but I forgot. I'm hoping the sugar puffs might lure them slightly more into the light away from the garage wall so they can be seen more easily.

Another oddity is that after going nightingale watching several evenings recently, the last time with the grandkids in tow as well, we now have a resident one at the bottom of our road camped out in a huge fir tree. I have lived here for 23 years and the birds here generally have vastly increased in numbers but I have never heard a nightingale here at home until now. Middle daughter and I spotted him on Sunday through the binoculars although he has been around since last Thursday. All that fuss to drive a couple of miles to go and listen to one and I can lie in bed at 5am and hear one plain as anything.

We have a strange jackdaw too. These have been increasing year on year and last year we had one with a distinctly craoky off-key voice. He seems to have returned again, or maybe he was silent all winter, so now we get this strange almost honking noise from about 7am. I know it IS a jackdaw as I have watched him through the bins too.

The third 'new' bird are flycatchers who sit on the telephone wires at the back of the house and then do a lovely tumbling display catching their next meal. They appear to be nesting in the eaves of a house in that direction and though I have looked for the fledglings I haven't seen any yet.

Either this spring is distinctly odd or else this village has suddenly become a magnet for a great influx of wild life.

Eurovision

WH missed his favourite TV programme of the whole year last night whilst were dining with friends locally. On our (slightly tipsy) return we had to look at the Eurovision Song Contest website and see who had won and listen to the top 3 songs. Today he's going to download it from BBCi and watch the whole thing. Personally I preferred the song which came second, the Ukranian entry and thought that should have won, but no doubt I will be regaled with WH's judgement later in the day.

I have long learned to live with his slightly odd-ball (well in the UK, the rest of Europe LOVES it) obsession with this annual bunfight which was brought to a head the year we watched it in a beach taverna in Lefkada. Greece won that year and the whole island went crazy with firecrackers and guns going off, free drinks and a general riot of celebration. The highlight of WH's viewing is however the commentary by an increasingly inebriated and out spoken Mr Wogan. Now Sir Terry has suggested that he might not be covering it again as he dislikes what he sees as the political slant to the voting.

Life will never be the same again.

Two week rule part 2

WH got his appointment through yesterday for his urgent test. 24th June. You will recall his GP referred him under the Two Week Rule as his symptoms were consistent with a possible cancer. This will be 45 days since he presented with those symptoms.

This is the NHS's own statement on the subject, taken from their document 'Choose and book: implementation guidance for urgent referrals for suspected cancer two week waits'

2.1 The two week wait standard
The two week wait (2WW) standard for all
cancers was introduced in 2000 and guarantees
that everyone with suspected cancer referred
urgently by their GP will be able to see a
specialist within two weeks. It is an important
milestone to achieving the 62-day target from
urgent referral for suspected cancer to first
definitive treatment, set in the NHS Cancer Plan.
Compliance with the 2WW standard has been
achieved for some time, and Trusts are now
focusing on consistent delivery of the 62-day
standard.
(my italics)

Oh no, not in this area seemingly. The NHS has done us proud once again. WH now has to wait another 4 weeks until he has this test, with all the attendant problems, worry, lack of efficient pain medication, lack of sleep etc etc. Once again the patient is the last consideration.

I don't think Alan Johnson would be looking so smug if that were him.

Two week rule, don't make me laugh, I'm already crying

The NHS apparently has a two week rule that means that if you present to your GP with some new, serious, possibly cancer-related symptom, you get tested and see an 'expert' within 2 weeks. 3 weeks ago WH did just that. Although the GP thought there was a slight chance of it being related to medications he is taking, nevertheless he was referred immediately for an endoscopy to have his gut checked out and stopped from taking any of his regular medication.

Seeing another doctor in the practice last week about another maybe-related-symtom and being in excrucuiating pain with the lack of pain relief, this guy also expressed surprise that the endoscopy had not been carried out. He promised to chase it urgently. On Monday two phone calls from different practice nurses had WH rushing to the surgery for a consult about yet another new medication. Again the GP was astonished that the endoscopy had still not been carried out and said she would chase it immediately. Now 3 days later WH still hasn't heard anything, and still can't take any arthritis medication which is leaving him is severe pain and unable to sleep at night.

I know the NHS is strapped for cash and I know that many doctors are unconvinced that this system is any good but does anyone consider the poor old patient? We go on holiday in 8 days, a holiday planned specifically for WH's enjoyment. WH has been told he has a potentially serious condition and needs an urgent test. He hasn't had the urgent test, can't take his usual meds so is feeling 10 times worse than usual and there is no apparent end in sight. The prospect of a holiday with 10 other people whilst feeling in this state is not appealing to him, never mind the worry of 'What ifs'.

Once again the NHS has caused this family no end of grief and is threatening to ruin our holiday of a lifetime.

Counting down, fingers crossed. No Problem!

Just two weeks to the big day when all 11 of us fly these shores for the sunnier climes of Corfu. So far it's been quiet of late no major panics yet. WH and I are getting ourselves sorted early as there are sure to be some major hitches to come. I say this advisedly and with a foresight coloured by past experience.

This is the family who lost passports 15 hours before travelling, 17th May 1999 is forever imprinted on my mind as we queued outside the passport office at 6am in order to make a flight at noon. I admit I lied when I called up the airline and said I would be late checking in due to 'car trouble', in reality we were hurtling at breakneck speed down the M4, shiny new passports in hand. We finally joined the back of the check-in queue to the accompaniment of an announcement of a 4 hour flight delay, panic over.

On another occasion, WH and 3 kids fetched up at a campsite in Cornwall at 11pm only to find they had left all the tent poles behind, they arrived home at 3am and had left again by 9 arguing all the while about whose fault it was.

Youngest daughter on her first trip abroad solo, ie without family but unfortunately with the current boyfriend, went to a rave in Spain. She then had her handbag with all her valuables stolen on the first day, money, passport, phone, camera. WH managed to wire money out to her and enabled her to take her pre-booked bus home, however other rowdies on said bus caused all the Brits to be ejected at Dover and we had to retrieve her from there. Our phone bill was colossal that month, in inverse proportion to our bank account.

Middle daughter emigrated to New Zealand. Her new Kiwi husband turned character the day they left and she spent 3 years trying to keep afloat and working all the hours she could whilst he spent every penny, didn't work and generally got into trouble. Finally she snapped and phoned WH to ask for money for flights home. "I'll see how much they are," he said. ""Oh I know already" said she, "I've already booked, you just have to pay".

Eldest daughter and husband also went to Spain for their first holiday as a couple. They didn't go anywhere much and were bored and didn't like the food. They must have had some good times as Number 1 grandson was the result.

So now we're off with the next generation too, one is frightened of flying, one is frightened of nothing, half of the party don't like foreign food, only two of us have ever driven on the 'wrong' side of the road, and two are so frightened of getting lost they're going to stay on the beach all week. Sounds like we're going to have fun.

Concerto for nightingale and blackbird

WH finally picked up his new hearing aids earlier this week. The difference to him is immense. He can't believe just how many little things he can now hear again. Perhaps a rowdy children's party was not quite the best place to wear them for the first time but he didn't need to remove them or turn the volume down and no-one noticed he was wearing them until pointed out to them. All in all they seem to be a success.

Later that same evening we went to look at a small parcel of land which is for sale locally. Mostly mixed woodland, there are some redundant buildings and a pasture which floods in winter, a haven for local wildlife. We soon realised that buying this would not be the dream we had thought it might be, noise from the motorway some 7 miles distant seemed to funnel up the valley and broke through the silence. A minor road above the fields also echoed loudly and WH with his newly acquired hearing deemed it far too noisy.

Nevertheless we walked the pathways and and enjoyed the warm evening listening to the numerous local birds, joined by a brace of pheasants who were roosting in some rhododendron bushes. As dusk fell another tune began. Two nightingales in adjacent trees struck up a conversation and sang their sweet song in the falling light. We stayed the best part of an hour listening to them until we were forced to leave, driven by the falling light and the need to negotiate some rough ground in poor light.

It had been a magical hour, the stillness, the unspoilt ground and the amazing song of the unseen birds. WH told me that he had not heard sounds like that for the best part of 20 years. I was stunned and momentarily felt empty as the realisation of all that he had had missed hit me like a thunderbolt. At least with his new aids he can begin to make up for that loss. Then as if to celebrate two blackbirds joined in and the road noise was obliterated as we left the site to a finale played by a quartet of the loudest birds even I had ever heard.

Listen here for the sound of the nightingale. Click the forward arrow above the waveform to play.

Feels like summer

Yesterday we went to the Marie Curie Garden Fair at Kentisbeare house. What a fabulous day we had. The weather was perfect, cloudless skies, hot sun and a just a little light breeze. Over 50 stalls had set up selling mostly plants and garden related things but a lovely food tent as well. As usual the Wallaces' burgers were to die for. Die, I probably will too when I step on the scales later today having eaten 2 burgers with onion relish for lunch and then having pizza for tea, it being too hot and me being too tired to think of anything else to fill up a very hungry WH.

I bought loads of plants for the new garden and found a lovely little nursey not far from here which I will be visiting later in the week. The patio at the new house is so hot I intend to do lots of pots of salvias which I have hitherto had little success with in the present NE facing garden.

One I bought yesterday was Salvia patens which must be my most favourite colour ever and the colour of a perfect Mediterannean sky. I'm hoping that it will echo the skies to come here too.

A little taste of summer

Last night I made Kolokithakia or Little Courgettes (zuchini). I did a meze for dinner with a mostly Greek/Middle eastern theme and tried to cook these for the first time. I have to report they were every bit as good as those we've had many times in Greece over the years. I served everything at once in true Greek style and we all dug in to Baked trout, Briam (vegetable stew), Couscous with herbs, peppers and onion, Greek salad, pita bread, Tzatziki and last but not least the Kolokithakia. Dessert was a platter of Charentais melon, Cheddar strawberries, pineapple and kiwi fruit, and very lovely it looked too.

At the farmers market the previous day I had spotted some round thin-skinned cougettes more like the variety they seem to grow in Greece so snapped some up with just this recipe in mind. It's really easy to cook if just a little messy.

Kolokithakia

Courgettes sliced about 5mm thick
Flour well seasoned with salt and pepper
1 beaten egg
Olive oil for frying

Make sure the courgettes slices are dry.
Dip in beaten egg then in the flour.
Shake off excess flour and fry in olive oil for 2-3 mins turning half way through.
Fry in a single layer in small batches. The resulting slices should be light and crispy and golden brown.
Drain on kitchen paper and serve immediately with slices of lemon to squeeze over.

This is often serve as a starter or as part of a larger meal.

Headbanger

Sitting here the other day up to my eyes in paperwork for the end of the financial year I heard a strange sound. A bit like a spring or maybe it was feint knocking sound. Whatever, I couldn't find the source of it until I went outside later on and I heard it more clearly. A quick check on the internet proved without a doubt. It was the sound of a Greater Spotted Woodpecker and he has obviously set up home in the oaks opposite my house. He started drumming this morning just after dawn and has continued intermittently all day. Some times he sounds closer still, perhaps moving trees.

I've wasted hours looking for him and still can't see him it's really infuriating. It's good to hear though. I hope he does manage to attract a mate and then we might get the sight of the whole family later in the season.

You can see and hear one here, although he's picked an odd choice of tree to drum.

Houseful

My living room is ablaze with flowers. Saturday brought 4 separate lots and a plant. Unfortunately 3 of these were delivered in person so I had vistors for the most part of the day and was dishing out cups of tea to all and sundry. One set though, made their own tea, tidied my kitchen, put the remains of my disturbed lunch in the fridge and commented on WH's lack of housekeeping skills all the while marvelling that I wasn't in bed like they thought I would be. As these relatives have never visited in the 17 years of WH and I being together I should think myself highly honoured. This was in addition to taking 2 little walks to the new house, alone.

I really am doing much better than last time. Yesterday, to celebrate that fact, we went to Kingsbury May Festival. Our short trip turned into a marathon involving a stand-up burger lunch, afternoon tea in a village coffee shop on the Somerset levels, an electrical part fest in B&Q, 2 supermarkets for cat food and other urgent needs and finally dinner in a local pub.

I was hoping to have a rest today, still being only 6 days post-op, but I started well by having to make tea for the workforce at 7.30am while they chewed over their respective weekend's events and tried to summon up enough energy to plod round the corner and actually DO something. I've just had a phone call to tell me that the breakfast delivery is late. Oh, were they expecting me to take it then? Er... YES.

Maybe I should just go back to work, I might get waited on then.

Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Image courtesy of beatlefans.com

I'm home, a day late but anyway I'm here now and well on the road to recovery. I was looked after wonderfully well in the hospital apart from an unfortunate experience where I was given far too much morphine than was good for me for some reason.

It's still a bit in my system so I'll leave the details and description until a later date. I will say it's not something I want to repeat any time but it has give WH a conversation piece with all the plasterers/painters/roofers working on the new house during his brief visits to supervise. I thought my ears were burning and if I listen hard enough I can hear the laughter from here. Seemingly I would have made a good comedy duo, single handed.

Grounded

Got a date with a sugeon and his knife again in a couple of days so it's busy, busy, busy here as I strive to do in 2 days everything I want to do in the next 4-6 weeks, the length of time I must take it very easy. This time around I'm going to be good, or even more of a pain as far as Worst Half is concerned, no cooking, cleaning or lifting anything heavier than a mug of water, and no driving for at least 3 weeks. I set out to do this last time but things didn't always work out and I just did what I had to. Now I'm having the resulting damage repaired so I've decided that as I don't want to go through this a third time, I might as well be over cautious instead.

Meanwhile, my lovely cleaner Mrs T is having one of those 'special' birthdays so I must be up early tomorrow before her visit to arrange her present. Seeing as she did enough ironing to last half a lifetime last week and I have another mountain again already the gift had better be good. Actually I really can't live without her now and I do feel a bit sorry landing her with all this but I've been sorting out my holiday stuff in advance and also digging out a load of really old favourites which now suddenly fit again, after 6 or so years in the 'just in case box' so of course it all had to be washed and pressed. I am the living proof that saving stuff 'for when I lose weight' does actually sometimes pay off. Now over 2 stones lighter, I have just discovered a long forgotten interest in clothes shopping, trouble is, I don't want to buy too much as at the rate at which I am going none of this will fit again in 3 months time, it will all be too big. Then I really will chuck it out and save Mrs T any more grief.

Shopping however is off the agenda for the next few weeks, even when I can travel there's no dampner like a bored male to stop you looking at anything interesting, as I will have to have a chauffeur for a few weeks more. I'll be living vicariously through those members of the family who can get out and of course there's always the internet. After all, I do have a holiday in a months' time to plan for. Accordingly I have ordered a few little goodies to arrive next week to give me something to look at although I expect I'll be sending WH to the post office to return most of it, especially if he catches sight of the invoices.

Tomorrow I'll be potting up the rest of my herbaceous cuttings ready for the move to the new house. Someone donated about 50 ten inch plant pots so I'm busy filling them with stuff which will grow up over the next few months and then be transplanted in the autumn to create an instant 'mature' herbaceous border. It also means I get to take most of my collection of hardy geraniums which I would hate to lose. We did move a few bits from the new house down to WH's garden prior to us totally devastating the back garden and it's amazing what has come up. Today I spotted a mouse plant and a tiny cyclamen amongst a jasmine we have saved. It breaks my heart that the garden was so overgrown and such a mess that we had no real option but to cut it all back. During our visits this time last year we barely saw much more than weeds and grass and now all these little gems are appearing. In what remains of the garden itself I search every day for seedlings and signs of unusual things. Earlier we discovered at least 20 varieties of daffodils and narcissi, some very old varieties when I looked them up and a row 2 metres in length of what I think must be colchicums but of course we won't know until they flower in the autumn.

Meanwhile I'll be looking at flowers of a different nature later this week, on the TV, and making mental plans of the garden I'm going to make when I've recovered.

See ya!

Cuckoo day

Old English Folk Rhyme (Anon)

In April the cuckoo shows his bill

In May he is singing all day

In June he changes his tune

In July he prepares to fly

In August fly he must

I always think of 24th April as 'Cuckoo Day'. My late departed friend and advisor in all things country would be watching the skies and listening outside her back door round about now for signs of the illusive cuckoo which she swore would arrive in this locality on that day. Some years she was right, others it would be later. The last few years round here cuckoos have been very thin on the ground. Last year she said she had never heard one at all and of course "in June he changes his tune" so the cuckoo may have escaped undetected. My friend died in July, maybe it was an omen that she didn't hear her beloved bird that spring.

So yesterday and today I too watch the skies and listen for sound of the migrant's return. This morning, sitting up in bed, I saw house martins flying over the village, the first time this year and somewhat later than other years. I haven't even seen a swallow this year yet but other years they are earlier too. Maybe the martins came today to make up for the cuckoo's disappearance; maybe they came earlier and I just didn't notice them, unlikely; maybe they have some swallows with them;

Whatever. They are a great herald of the summer and warmer weather.

Celebrations Danish Style

The family meal which took place after our attendance at a Danish Confirmation last Sunday was unbelievable. It's no wonder the Danes have various sayings like "Never trust a thin cook " and "No one ever goes hungry in Denmark".

We started with glasses of champagne in the garden and then took our places at the long table set with the best china and colour co-ordinated in blue and white. The guest of honour, the Boy, sat in the centre flanked by his parents, other attendees at the ceremony sat around them and then at the farthest reaches of the table visitors who were invited just for the meal. We started with a tart of chicken in a white sauce, quite filling but pleasant enough. Seconds were passed around and most people took them. Wine was served and every few minutes someone raised a glass and said "Skal", the rest of the party following suit.

The main course was an interesting choice for a Danish teenager, a Greek 'gyros' plate. Firstly a huge bowl of tzatziki was passed around, closely followed by marinated and grilled pork strips, salad,2 kinds of salad dressing, bread rolls and a mountain of potatoes in a cream sauce. Again prodigious amounts of seconds were eaten. Each serving dish being passed firstly to our hostess and then passed to left around the table. The wine was flowing freely, conversation was loud and animated and being conducted in at least 3 languages, Danish, English and Russian.

By this time we were quite full up and welcomed the adjournment to the garden for an hour or so to take a break from eating, or so we were told. Our newly-come-of-age Boy then opened his presents and a huge number of cards from everyone from family, neighbours, the school, the housing association and some barely known acquaintances. This done, we were called back to the table for dessert, Orange pancakes in a cream sauce. Again there was far more food than people could eat and second and third helpings seemed to make no dent in the huge platters.

The servers then presented everyone with a sealed sheet of paper containing a song which the family had written in honour of the occasion and which we were now expected to sing. It seemed to be an outline of the Boy's life to date interspersed with funny anecdotes. It ran to 15 verses although 3 of those were in English in our honour and concerned the time we had been neighbours and I had babysat this little boy who spoke no language other than Danish but who now speaks 6 reasonably well. More toasts and wine followed, the guest of honour made his speech thanking everyone for the presents and for coming and the company rose to take coffee in the garden once again. Bearing in mind it was about 10 degrees and very windy I was frozen in my finery and had to resort to wearing a huge thick wrap/cardigan. Others in the party wondered why I was cold. All along, the outside doors had been open and the room chilled to a less than comfortable 15 degrees but the Danes are made of hardier stuff and had removed jackets and cardigans in no time.

After coffee and tea for some we were called yet again to the dining table and the Boy cut his celebration cake a huge confection called Kransekage and very similar to the picture above. It too had the male figure on the top and was decorated with Danish flags and crackers. Made up of rings of a type of marzipan it was delicious, if rather rich. A desultory hour passed in conversation, some outside in the garden others, like me, inside in the slighter warmer room.

Suddenly the table was re-laid and more food was brought out. I thought I was seeing things. This was the 'Going Home' food I was told. Once again we took our places back at the table and were served with frikadelles a type of meatball crossed with a burger, more salad, potato salad and bottles of beer or yet more wine. After this was eaten the hostess announced that that was then end of the party and everyone went home in about 5 minutes flat.

I'm amazed we could even move.

Been there, done that and didn't wear a t-shirt

Just back from several days in Denmark visiting Ms A and her son who had his confirmation in the local church. I admit I was slightly puzzled when we had the invitation and even more so when I was told that no, he didn't want to join the church particularly, he was just doing it with all his classmates. What I failed to appreciate was that just about the WHOLE of Denmark year 9 gets confirmed this month. It was a HUGE event, necessitating 2 church services, 2 days apart in that small town alone. Danish flags were flying everywhere, notably outside every single confirmands house. Huge parties took place too, in local restaurants, marquees and private houses.

The girl's outfits were nothing short of spectacular, 14 year old mini-brides in metres of tulle and lace, bare midriffs and and shoulders notwithstanding. The boys wore 'smart', trousers and ties and ours had a brand new suit which he wore with aplomb as though he always dressed like that. For a chap who doesn't even wear school uniform he carried it well. The guest's attire was another fashion story: Mothers in opera length ball gowns, Danish outfits in Laura Ashley style or just plain smart sat alongside Grannies in their finery. Dads wore suits or smart casual, we wore suits and high heels. Good job too we would have looked well out of place in t-shirts and jeans.

The coming of age theme continued down to the presents too, not for our boy a few t-shirts and the usual teenage accoutrements, no he had credit card holders, hundreds of kroner and not one but 2 expensive watches. Somehow the book of Danish fairy tales he also received, albeit in English, for this is a multinational/multilingual family, totally missed the point.

Magic Moments

Picture from BBC Springwatch

Nelson and I shared a magic moment this morning at the crack of dawn. Well not quite the crack, but a fairly early half-past six. Misty as per usual had woken me up playing with a pencil on the carpet around the bed. This is the regular signal for me to get up and feed the tribe. If that doesn't work then a swift tap on the arm whilst looking into my face does the trick at about the third attempt.

I went downstairs, put the kettle on, fed the cats and made WH some coffee. He wouldn't be up then but it cools nicely by 7.45, he likes to drink it just off cold anyhow. As I opened the living room curtains I saw a female blackbird come and perch on the side of the for-sale board which still adorns our front garden. Nelson was on the window sill. Despite us both remaining there, and the blackbird looked straight in directly at us from only 4 feet away, she sat there preened, looked around and appeared to be singing although I couldn't hear through the double glazing. Nelson continued to watch her and stayed stock still. He seemed bemused that a bird was so close and wasn't trying to escape.

I put down the mug I had in one hand and stayed there for almost 10 minutes next to Nelson, both of us watching this lovely bird enjoying the early morning. Suddenly a car sped down the main road and the magic was over, she flew off to the safety of the oak trees opposite.

The old soldier

This time last week I bumped into a very old friend and colleague I had not seen for about 8 years. At one time whenever we went into Town shopping, we would meet, unplanned but we always seemed to be in the same place at the time. Usually he was going for a sharp haircut at an upmarket salon. He had been a Guardsman, old school, and polished his shoes each night before work until you could see your face in them. He did his own ironing because his wife of 30 years was, in his words, incapable of getting a knife-edge pleat in his trousers and his shirts just didn't pass muster. You get the picture. For all that, he's salt of the earth, warm, funny and has a delicious wit and a disarming smile. He's about 10 years older than me but seemingly from a different generation. In a management meeting years ago I was 'in the chair' and getting stroppy with another colleague about plant efficencies. "Any further questions?" I barked to the room at large.

"Tell me?" pipes up my mate, "Would that be black tights or black stockings you're wearing today?" In those days sexist remarks like that were just banter, particularly as I, a lone female amidst 50-odd men, was in charge.

"I don't wish to answer such an affront to my dignity" I countered, "Clear off back to the coal-face and get working." Only then was it pointed out that I was in fact wearing jeans.

Things changed however, we supported him and his family when he was made redundant at the same time I was and from the same firm. He went on to get another much lower paid job and was made redundant again. His wife who is in the NHS, had job description alterations, changed hours and more damningly, pay cuts. Again we continued to visit, never turning up empty handed, always with a jar of coffee or a treat or a take-away and they struggled proudly on. Eventually on the up again they gave WH an old, unwanted piece of furniture in exchange for some work he had done for them. It fell apart on the way home. After a visit from WH and youngest step-daughter they promised to ring WH the following week about some matter or other. The call never came. Then WH was made redundant in a big factory closure, they must have known but never phoned. So time went on and the ties were lost. Suddenly out of the blue a daughter rang and asked if we would go to a surprise Wedding Anniversary celebration, Yes, love to we said, let us know where and when, we never found out. At a funeral of a mutual friend WH spoke and was ignored. He has never found out why. In the last eight years I have not set eyes on any of the family at all. We presumed they had moved, maybe abroad, Cyprus was a possibility years ago.

Until last Saturday that is. Returning to the car rather overladen with cheap vegetables, I saw this stooped figure shuffle through the doorway of the shopping arcade. He tried to straighten up and then proceeded forward in a really unsteady gait. I surveyed the face. OMG it was my friend. Gone was the sharp haircut which now had a floppy Hugh Grant appearance no longer jet- black but gunmetal grey. The face smiled back, the same big grin but somehow lopsided. He reached out as I approached him and slapped a big sloppy kiss on my cheek. The old soldier would have kissed my hand; he's like that.

In a halting and strained voice he asked how I was, how's the family, how's WH, still running me ragged? I made small talk, I couldn't talk about our ups and downs when confronted with someone whose fortunes had obviously changed a good deal more than mine had. I asked the same questions in return.

The reply struck me like a thunderbolt. He'd got Motor Neurone Disease, had it 3 years, had given up work and driving. The previous week he'd been told the medics could do no more, just wait for time to take it's course. Suddenly the last eight years fell away and it doesn't even matter any more, it's all crap after this revelation. Water under the bridge.

"How's the wife?" I asked, " Same as ever, has to be with me to look after."

We were stood outside a coffee shop by then, "Let's go for a coffee" I suggested, the old phrase we used at work when things were going pear-shaped and we were in the thick of it.

"Can't," he said, "I'm going to get my hair done, I've got an appointment." Some things never change.

"Same place?" I asked, "up the stairs?"

"Well yes, but I have to go up in the goods lift now." And some things do change.

"Come and see us," he said, "it will be like old times." We're going next week to try and re-create some.

Bye Bye Birdie

Yesterday when I opened my back door first thing in the morning it was noticeably quiet outside. The bird feeders were devoid of all activity and a lone goldfinch sat on the fence looking around. The silence was deafening. Even WH noticed and he IS deaf.

The reason for all this is that the flock of siskins which have been in residence since early December have all gone, presumably to their breeding grounds in the pine forests of Northern Europe. I have spent many wasted minutes this winter watching their acrobatics on the feeders and marvelled at them feeding upside down, often in the howling gales we have had lately.

Now I have to keep looking upwards for the first signs that the summer visitors are arriving, the house martins, swifts and swallows. Spring will really be on it's way when they appear.

The joys of spring

I did something today which I had not been able to do for 16 years, since I was first ill. I went to Exeter shopping on my own. I had a good reason to go, I got my ring back, fixed. It's smaller and looks great, especially since they seem to have cleaned it and made it look ever more sparkly.

Exeter has always bothered me as far as driving there alone goes. I don't know the road system too well, I never know where to park that isn't a two mile hike to the shops and then I get lost. Since they opened the Princesshay shopping centre and another new car park it seems easier, so today I took the plunge. It was great, it was warm,19 degrees C when I left which was not bad for April, there were no big crowds and best of all I went in new shops and bought new clothes and a handbag and generally had lovely time. Later on I went to see a friend who owns a shop in the city and had a coffee and sit down with her and then went back and did a bit more window shopping before driving home.

So far this week I've been really busy, have been out every day, done loads of gardening too, and still feel fitter than I have done for more years than I want to count. Granted the weather has something to do with it but I just feel alive right now. Hopefully I can improve more in the next couple of weeks before I go to Denmark and then on my return I am scheduled for surgery again, afterwards I have 4 weeks to recover then it's the Great Corfu Holiday. Time flies when you're having fun.

Crush: a temporary infatuation

Nelson is fickle in his infatuations. He hates most people with a vengeance, avoiding all contact with anyone he doesn't know well and running off at the sight of strangers. Children freak him out completely, he can't stand the unpredictable nature of their movements and if they tried to stroke him he would surely die. He does like some men though, WH's weirdo friend, JohnnyB a longtime close friend of us both and the depressed painter to name but three. WH he can take or leave and only makes a fuss of him if he is very hungry and knows he will get short shrift from me, usually because we have tried 4 different meals that day and he has refused them all, much to Misty's delight as he gets to eat the cast -offs. Only for me does he reserve his deep rumbling purr as I give him his bed-time cuddle, tickle his fluffy little tummy and scratch his ears, and of course all this is in the privacy of my bedroom, public affection he can't take at all.

Latterly he was in love with a bag. Now he's fallen out of love with that and transferred his affections to something else, a really naf, shell-suit-type body-warmer which WH's mother insists on buying him annually to keep him warm in the winter. This one had been worn for plastering and was abandoned on the floor in front of the heater. No particular reason, but you know what men are, never, ever, put anything away for at least 3 days unless under extreme sufferance, so I just leave stuff and if it still remains after 48 hours or so, it then gets washed and put in it's rightful place, prior to this time it's quite likely to be retrieved for a further wearing in which case I'm accused of hiding "all his stuff". This time though Nelson had collared it so to speak and made a nest in the centre, his face peeping out of the armhole whilst he luxuriated in it's nylon warmth and softly padded surface.

Of course for the house viewings and other estate agent related visits the body-warmer is removed and hidden in a cupboard as are all the cat related accoutrements of this house. Never let a prospective vendor know that you have an animal in residence let alone three, the property must be bright, shiny, clutter and most importantly, animal free. The last viewing was cancelled, just at the point the house had been restored to show-home squeaky-cleanness. I swore silently at the estate agent on the other end of the phone and out loud to my vision of the unknown prospective purchaser who had caused me 3 hours housework for no good reason at all. Life returned to normal except for one unhappy, permanently shrieking cat. It's taken me 4 days to realise that his latest love was still in the cupboard. Now he's pawing his love object with wild abandon and telling it he loves it. Until the next time he finds something else he loves more.

Don't ever work for the general public.

I've been running round all day collecting things for WH and delivering them to his work site, actually somewhere he's been before and to where he was bound to return at the end of a warranty period. A builder's life is never simple, particularly when the customer is a prize pratt with obsessive/compulsive disorder and that's just for starters, even his family think he's a nutter. Anyway after delivering a load of insulation to stop his pipes knocking, pipes I hasten to add which were fitted by A N Other and not by us, I then had to deliver 4 cupfuls of cement from another job to fill a minuscule dip in a brick.

I met the depressed painter on that trip, he was tiling under a worktop which you can't see unless you lie on the kitchen floor and crane your head at a very unnatural angle, but hey, the customer is always right and all that, we will do these jobs without charge, with pleasure. By the same token, it gives us untold joy to sand down the underside of a worktop which also can't be seen because it feels rough when you stroke it. WHAT?? WH did say it was because it was cheap, the ones we usually fit are light-years better quality, but that remark, strangely, went unnoticed.

Later on I had a phone call, "Could I just deliver some cups of coffee from the local garage as by 1pm the customer hadn't offered any of the crew a drink." Again their wish was my command and it cost the best part of twenty quid to get coffees and extra cans each for later in the day. By that time WH was in need of paracetamol and luckily I found 4 under the seat in the car, wrapped I hasten to add. As to why they were there at all, it's safer not to ask. Having delivered these, I shot off again quickly, the customer by then peering at me over the top of his pc screen, handily situated right in the centre of the front room window, angry no doubt for distracting the workers for all of thirty seconds.

Just as well I couldn't stay long as the painter was about to tell me about his latest trouble with his mother, she doesn't like the smell of paint in his van. I thought we had problems.

Blog referrals

I can tell from my sitemeter when people read this blog. I can usually tell who they are if they're regulars. I wrote about this before in Absent Friends. I've still got regular lurkers and one in particular who I'm sure I know but they never, ever comment. 18 months of almost daily reading and not a word, zilch. I wonder why they read, it's a bit like looking through someone's window and then scarpering when it is opened. Strange behaviour indeed. Others read and email or chat to me elsewhere so there is no need for immediate comment.

Not that I want loads of comments, I'm almost as bad at replying to them, usually because I find them when I am looking up Something Terribly Important for WH like the size of a roof truss or the price of scalpings. I read the email informing me of a comment and then promptly forget until days later when I then feel really embarassed and real heel for seeming to totally ignore the writer.

The most intriguing things to me about my blog readership at the moment are the strange connections called referrals. I know with a title involving the word straightjacket I get some odd ones, people looking for straightjackets, information about their role in ancient medicine or something and also people looking for those, ahem, dodgy sites where people do strange things with them.

The most bewildering of all however is the fact that almost 20% of referrals are from a Google search of 'carbohydrates and sleep' and relate to a blog I did aeons ago sparked off by some links I had read about between a high intake of carbs and excessive sleepiness. I didn't think it was that revelatory though being my usual ramble about my continuingly odd symptoms. All the sites searching these terms are from the USA. Is it a big deal over there or has someone posted a link to this somewhere else? It's totally baffling to me. Maybe I better have some carbs and sleep through the puzzle.

Ring Ring

I had an engagement ring for Christmas. Not as a prelude to marriage but as a symbol of having been together for almost 17 years, having been through more 'stuff' together than most people cope with in a lifetime, and desperately trying to get this house move sorted and other things sorted and finally, actually, be in the same place at the same time for longer than a few hours. Well, we picked it out and bought it at the beginning of December and it was all boxed up and lovingly gift wrapped by the shop and I opened it on Christmas Day and out fell loads of little sparkly, glittery things and ribbons and it was lovely and I showed everyone 'cos I'm really not a very 'ringy' person and this one is just, exactly, me.

It felt a little on the large side when I wore it and it was definitely looser than it had been in the shop. On Boxing Day I lost it for 2 hours in the garage sorting some books. I was a miserable wreck when WH returned from wherever he had been and together we went back into the garage and he wasn't a bit cross and was very calm and found it and said it was only a ring and if the worst came to the worst he'd buy me another one. Panic over.

Since then I have lost it numerous times and it has become looser and looser. Eventually after losing it in the vegetable box 3 times in one day I bought a tacky, chain store, little ring to keep it on.

Today we took it back to the shop where we bought it originally to get it made smaller. The good news is that since December my ring size has gone down by 3 just like the rest of me. The bad news is that it may be too much to alter and would affect the setting and the stones. It has now gone to the goldsmith to decide if he can do it or not. If not it looks like I'll be buying myself a replacement.

But like I said on Boxing Day the first time I lost it, I don't want another one, I want the original. It was great deciding to get it, going in the shop together and trying it on and then keeping it for 3 weeks until Christmas Day; another one wouldn't be quite the same. I will have to keep the first one on a chain round my neck I think. As for the shop's other suggestion, part-exchange the first one and get a replacement, forget it, like the man who bought it for me, I want the original, for ever.

Sod's law

Damn, bugger and blast.

I did a lot of packing for the move last week and sorting out WH's house prior to No 1 daughter and family moving in and I thought I pulled something in my stomach as WH handed down some boxes from my loft. The next day there was a distinct ache. A timely visit to the GP confirmed it, my hernia is back. I'm really mad, things were going so well and now I'm back to not exerting myself, no lifting or carrying and being generally careful. Dancing for 2 hours at the Hayseed gig probably didn't help either.

I see the surgeon again on Wednesday and this time I will be begging him to do the 'proper' final stuff with the mesh. After all it's not the NHS and surely if I am paying I can have what I want? Last time I went with his considered opinion that it was not necessary the first time. No of course not, that way you get to pay for 2 operations when the first doesn't hold. Usually I'm moaning about the NHS, this surely makes a change.

I'm going 'Private' again for the same two reasons I did before, far less risk of catching anything with my lack of a decent immune system and the much greater nursing care given as I didn't know exactly how, as a Lymie, I was going to react to surgery. This time there is a third reason, my window of opportunity to have surgery is minuscule, restricted to one convenient week only. So another operation is looming again, hopefully as soon as I can fix it after we return from Denmark in 4 week's time. That would give me 4-5 weeks recovery before the great Corfu Holiday. I need all my strength for that.

Afterwards I had planned a fairly active summer, festivals, craft fairs and the like until August when WH is due to have his shoulder operated on again. He had this done before in 2002 and it wasn't too successful so they're doing something more radical so he can continue to use it. If that works he is scheduled for the second one a few months later. In the intervening time we will most likely decamp to Greece where there will be no temptation for him to use it to any great degree. In any case he has been told he will be off work 3-4 months, not the 6 weeks he managed last time.

Quite where this puts the house move in the scheme of things I'm not sure, I will be out of action for 3-4 months as far as that goes so it looks like WH will be doing it all himself; that's when he's finished the house which for the last 4 months has been a single handed job as it is. We did get rid of the semi-permanent skip last week so that's a start, just a kitchen roof to get on and a kitchen to fit and we might be half-way there.

The arrival in 4 weeks of WH's nephew back from his annual 6 month sojourn in the Far East will give a second pair of experienced and lightening-quick hands. He generally works for us for the other 6 months of each year but has been so busy with other things for 18 months we had to do without our Main Man. His return is eagerly anticipated, not least by me, so WH will no longer feel he is doing the whole kit and caboodle himself.

Sometimes I am really sick of being sick, after 16 years I should have learned it's always two steps forward and one step back.

Strutting our stuff in Stroud

( Picture taken Feb 2008, Borderline London copyright Life in the Straighjacket)

Monday night we travelled to Stroud in Gloucestershire to see Hayseed Dixie live, WH having also seen them the night before in Exeter. 2 gigs on consecutive nights has got to be good going, he's more of a fan than me now.

We knew we’d got the right place when we pulled into the station car-park behind the Imperial Hotel and parked right by JW's famous new bike. After checking out the windows of the Polish deli and Polish restaurant (never knew Stroud was so ethnic) we settled in Wetherspoons on St Patrick’s night to the sound of two Irish guys having an argument and a whole bunch of, you-guessed-it, Poles. Shortly after the meal arrived we got a first glimpse of JW and Dave-who-does-our-sound trying to act all incognito with tweed cap and horn rimmed glasses. We kept our distance but did notice several other ‘fans’ paying homage at the service counter. Jake was spotted having a crafty smoke outside. Time to leave and go suss out the venue. The Subscription Rooms are owned by the local council and are an old fashioned theatre venue with chandeliers, a ballroom and a recent makeover of the bars and cafe area. Huge bouncers in Crombie coats guarded the door and divested us all of any suspicious looking articles, in my case half a (plastic) bottle of water. We wondered what we were in for.

Inside, the clientele seemed to be a mix of the local 'arty' types and yummy mummies attired in Boden and Joules. " A glass of chardonnay I think please, Henry." The men were bank-manager smart in casual mode, cashmere sweaters and cord trousers. Quite odd really. We wondered if they knew what they were in for. One or two broke the mould and looked like the normal Hayseed crowd, if anyone who loves them can be considered normal, a crowd of lads in false beards and cut off dungarees, a handful of bikers and the usual denim/leather clad brigade of lone males with too much hair. Frightened off by the distorted wall of sound which greeted us as Instill started their support set, we retreated to the coffee bar which declined to supply us with coffee but appended the statement that if they had known that 600 people would all be wanting coffee they would have switched the machine on. We sat and drank our cokes surrounded by an atmosphere more akin to a school PTA meeting amid cries of "Oh No, they've even got a siren now" and a loud "Ger off,you're crap" in a Brummie accent. At that stage we began to think there was another alternative event going on in the building.

Fortified by the warm coke, again we ascended the stairs for the main event as Instill performed their final number. the applause was lukewarm. The crowd in front of the stage did not seem very interested in any of the music, rather they were keen to seen 'down the front' and were braying to their friends across the room. Trays of pint glasses were placed on the stage and conversation resembled the hunt ball. When the boys came on to tune their instruments there were several loud cheers from the back and the whole hall surged forward in anticipation, displacing the local hoi-polloi with a few real fans.

After the customary 'Hello and Welcome', Kirby Hill got them going properly. The crowd seemed to be Hayseed newbies as very few hands went up when JW asked who had seen them before. The boys were on cracking form though and soon won them over, almost bringing the house down with Holiday about ¾ way through. They appeared to have been injected with speed as they tore through a mix of oldies and No Covers stuff. Dale was doing a great Maori haka for most of the set, his eyeliner even darker then usual; Jake got a load of laughs for fancying the support drummer (really?); and Don-Wayne dedicated his Daddy’s tune to Rachel-at-the-back for the encore. Dale singing 'Sweet Alabam' was just one high point in a set which had all the stomping classics and those of us who knew the words singing along as fast as we could manage which was not fast enough most of the time. A musician friend had told WH that on the Sunday they played at least 200 beats per min and this seemed even faster. After over 90 minutes the show was over.

We had to skip the after gig party at a pub up the road and had to high-tail it back down the M5 to go to an early funeral on Tuesday. No doubt there would be a few sore heads in Stroud that morning. We've just got to wait another few months now for the boys return later in the year as we can't get to any of the other gigs on this tour sensibly, holidays, weekends away and work conspire to prevent us.

A regular visitor

Herbie used to live with me, he shared my bed, cuddled close all night and regularly washed bits of me. He stroked my hair, sucked my ears and told me he loved me. One day he ran away and went to live with someone else. That was 5 years ago and now he's back, over the road with my neighbour.

He came into my life about 10 years ago, one hot summer day when the back door was open we saw this little face and two black ears peeping over the threshold. When he was noticed he slunk back down and just two tiny ear-tips remained in view. After that evening the little kitten became a regular visitor. Where he had come from no-one knew. My then neighbour, a merchant seaman, was home on extended leave and somehow this kitten managed to climb through the open kitchen window, scale the stairs and sleep on his bed. He was very hungry and the neighbour would walk down to the village shop and get a tin of corned beef to feed him. After a month or so of this I was asked why I wasn't feeding my new cat. "I haven't got one," I retorted. I suggested cat-food would be more appropriate, the neighbour had never thought of that. Another neighbour, also a single chap, had been sleeping with his patio door open due to the heat, every morning when he awoke, the kitten was curled up around his head. He hated cats and tried to get rid of him but still he came. Eventually the general consensus was that I, as the owner of 3 cats already, should adopt him. He needed food, vast quantities, he was too tiny to be out and about on his own and above all he needed somewhere safe to sleep. My other cats protested but really he was just too small to make much of a fuss of so they gave in and just let him be.

Very quickly we named him Herbie, he was a right Herbert, always into something, determined, courageous, and a real fighter. The merchant sailor neighbour returned to sea, only after making me promise I would always look after Herbie. Something about that kitten had struck a chord in his heart and he wanted to know he would be cared for. It was a strange conversation with a totally unsentimental, macho-man. It was the last time I would speak to him, he died 5 days later of a massive brain haemorrhage in the South China Sea, too far from land to be able to get him treatment. He was 42. I lost one of my best friends and Herbie lost his protector.

And so it seemed that Herbie had been given to me for some reason. Shortly after that he started disappearing. The first time was for a couple of days and he came back with a collar which he hated. He spent 5 hours trying to remove it until he got it stuck over his teeth and I had to finish the job. I realised he must have been going somewhere else. To cut a very long story short we discovered he really belonged to the house immediately behind mine even although the owners had initially denied it. He didn't like their dogs and so started a long 2-3 year period where he lived between the two houses. The real owner tried keeping him in, he always escaped. They had him neutered and he came back to me, escaping from their car as they returned from the vet and sleeping off his anaesthetic under my coffee table for 2 days. I tried to give him back but the owners were always out, didn't answer the phone or just said we''ll be round later. They didn't usually bother. They shut him in a shed for 4 days, his cries were driving me to distraction, the owners were away and I was on the point of breaking in when they returned and let him out. I wonder now why I didn't do it straight away. One Christmas, apparently on the vet's advice, they kept him in for 6 weeks. I was frantic. I didn't know where he was, the owners again denied they had seen him. I put up posters all round the village and had several false sightings. Oh lots of people knew him but no-one had actually seen him recently. I was quite sick at the time and very depressed. I was cold at night, my furry hot-water-bottle was missing. I went to the surgery for a blood test early one Monday morning. Imagine my delight when he was sitting on my front window on my return. I later found out he had once again escaped. At this point the owners gave up and subsequently moved house, leaving him and a dog behind. The dog was taken in by neighbours, Herbie remained with me.

At night he slept with me, down under the bedclothes, a furry, warm bag of obliviousness which I could mould into whatever shape I liked and he would never wake up. I had to stroke his head, then he would wash my knee, then came a big sigh and clunk he was fast asleep until morning. He sucked my ears and chewed my hair, he like to lick my scalp. I tried to stop him and consulted our vet. They suspected he had been taken from his mother too soon and I was a comfort. I explained the problems with his real owners and that he just didn't wouldn't stay with them. Even when I handed him back over the fence he had come straight back again. The vet decided he just needed me and wanted to be with me instead. It was just his way.

The wanderings continued, Herbie was seen in other parts of the village, at the shop, on the recreation field and in other houses. He had regular route, across the road, play under the pampas grass, down another road, cross the main road, visit a house near the shop, cross a field, visit an old lady in a bungalow, round the bungalow estate, cross the main road again, visit another house by a stream, slip under my opposite neighbours fence, go under her gate and be back out at the front of my place. It took all day. He left on his rounds at about 10 after a late breakfast and returned at 5 for tea. All this after his first walk of the day with a lady round the corner and her cat-friendly collie. Herbie would race out at 6, meet this lady at the end of the road, walk about 400 yards and then return for a quick snooze before breakfast.

Then came the day a feral cat had six sickly kittens at the top of the garden. We took them in and eventually nursed them back to health, keeping the two worst, Misty and Nelson. This was too much for Herbie and he left home when the kittens were only 5 weeks old and still living in the garden, he had been betrayed. He still walked his daily route, now including 10 minutes or so at the front of here, sitting staring up at the windows in disgust. If we went out to speak or to stroke him he tried to bite us and spat. He spent 18 months living near the shop, where we don't quite know. Then he moved again and lived with an elderly couple about 300 yards away from here, one of the houses he had always visited. He took over, slept in their bed to the point of lying full length on the chap's stomach with a paw on either shoulder. Just after Christmas the lady of the household went into hospital. Another betrayal, so now Herbie is over the road at my opposite neighbour's most of the day and night. He doesn't like their cat's prescription cat food so eats elsewhere but otherwise has made himself at home yet again, sleeping alongside her disabled husband in his downstairs bedroom and keeping his back warm at night. Yesterday morning I opened my curtains to see him sitting on her window cill.

He's been getting a bit friendlier again recently and I have stroked him a few times although I wouldn't pick him up. He's a big strong cat now, twice the size of when he lived here. I still miss him at night, no other cat has come so close and been quite so trusting. He still misses me too I'm sure if I see him outdoors he keeps watching for ages and will follow me from a distance. Occasionally he will come round the back and just look until he realises he has been seen, then he runs off. I wonder if he will ever come back, I like to think that one day he might and his wanderings will turn full circle.

The end of the Lyme

A couple of weeks ago I took myself off to see my Lovely Lyme Doc (LLD) in another part of the country. Alone. This in itself was a novelty, it was to be the furthest I have driven alone for 15 months. I took it slowly, arrived in time to have lunch in a wonderful cafe nearby and stock up at the Indian food shop around the corner. Thus fortified I sallied forth into the consulting rooms.

Apart from having a slight performance removing my clumpy, ankle-high walking boots, the consultation went very well. So well I had to stop and pinch myself afterwards to make sure I wasn't dreaming, and celebrate in style with the worst plate of supermarket fish and chips I had ever eaten. That brought me back to reality.

In a nutshell I am improving, vastly and quickly now too, every day brings some new realisation or surge of energy. A greater improvement than the LLD had dared hope and certainly better than I had ever dreamed about. I'm losing weight too, freed as I am of some of the medications that have coaxed me into life the last 16 years, and which I KNEW were causing me to gain and then retain weight. The end is beginning to be in sight. I remain on the treatment until May, when the sun and our family holiday in Corfu will pose problems anyway. This time it will be different however, I won't re-start unless I start to experience severe symptoms again, in which case I'll be racing back to LLD and begging for more antibiotics.

How long this break will be is unknown, it could be weeks or even months before those little hidden bugs come creeping out of their hiding places and make their presence felt. The worst case scenario is that after 4 weeks I will be sick again as I was after last year's holiday, the best case is that I remain well indefinitely, in which case we will know that all those horrid spirochetes have been zapped into oblivion.

Some of the symptoms will never completely go; WH asked LLD last visit what the prognosis was and was told a 95% recovery was possible in theory. This passage from Todors Online Journal of Bacteriology explains why:

Several antibiotics are effective in the treatment of Lyme disease. The present
drug of choice is doxycycline, a semisynthetic derivative of tetracycline. Even
patients who are treated in later stages of the disease respond well to
antibiotics. In a few patients who are treated for Lyme disease, symptoms of
persisting infection may continue or recur, making additional antibiotic
treatment necessary. Varying degrees of permanent damage to joints or the
nervous system can develop in patients with late chronic Lyme disease. Typically
these are patients in whom Lyme disease was unrecognized in the early stages or
for whom the initial treatment was unsuccessful.

My GP remains supportive even though she is not allowed to prescribe my treatment on the NHS. Odd really, as she can see that I am so much better than I was 12 months ago. Thank goodness I found out the real cause of my illness when I did. The state I was in last year leads to me think that by now I might not have been around.

Who cares about the odd 5%? You've got to agree, 95% of life is a much better prognosis than none at all.

Some good things happened this week

1. I had a lovely card for Mother's Day from youngest step-daughter. That will be the 18th year running I got something from her. Usually hand made but sometimes like this one a really lovely 'bought' one with lovely words.

2. Took Grandaughter aged 4 into the village shop and she was asked what she had been doing at Play School. 'Oh I don't go there any more' she said 'I've got the Chicky Spots' and proceded to pull up her jumper to show everyone.

3. The first flowers are out on my Akebia. Spring is definitely just around the corner even though we had a blizzard on Monday, for 10 minutes.

4. Went to the dentist and for the first time ever, I didn't have to have anything done. The Lyme treatment has improved my horrid teeth too.

5. The dentist thought I looked a lot fitter too and said so.

6. Was promised some (free) tickets for Chelsea Flower Show again from one of our suppliers. Thank You so much.

7. I have now lost almost 2 stones in weight since mid-December. My GP prefers kgs but somehow I know where I am with pounds and stones. Either way it's good.

Aarhus here we come

As if one Spring holiday and a recent long weekend in the smoke wasn't enough, another trip away has leapt up and bitten us on the proverbial. Ms A, our zany Danish friend and ex-neighbour, is throwing a party to celebrate her son's confirmation in April, the invite arrived on WH's birthday and of course we are going.

What a logistical nightmare. The most convenient flights are from Stansted, a 4 hour drive from here at least, we take off very early in the morning and arrive back at midnight. So that involves a hotel either side. Then we have to get from Aarhus to the family's home much further south, so we have to hire a car. We could get away with a small one but somehow Denmark doesn't do small ones to rent as WH found out last time he went (alone), so big car it is then. Having discovered all this I tried to make all the relevant bookings. For some reason last night all the relevant web sites were either down or running like treacle on ice, not worth waiting for. So this morning I was up with the lark and maxing out the credit card.

All I left have to do now is confirm the car hire, I put this off as it seems so horrendously expensive and I sort of thought that maybe later on it would be cheaper or perhaps I wouldn't notice the huge amount, either way I've postponed this until last. Last time WH went to Denmark we had an argument with the car hire people that went on for months as they insisted he had returned the car empty of petrol and had charged him £70 for the privilege, in reality he had filled it to overflowing 5km from the drop off precisely so he didn't get charged very much.

So now we have 5 days in Denmark to look forward to, only 5 weeks before the big Greek trip, somehow I think the house move will be on hold for even longer.

The boys from Deer Lick Holler

Just one of over 100 pix that WH took at the Borderline in London on Monday night where we went to see our fave band Hayseed Dixie on the second leg of their European tour 2008; they had played in Reykjavik the night before. It was a great night with a party like atmosphere, helped along by the shots of Jack Daniels the band provided us all with. Ostensibly it the was the press launch for the new album, but 150 dedicated fans didn't need a press presence to have a great time dancing and singing along with the old favourites. Too bad a lot of the press failed to show, we drank their JDs for them. Additionally, as the album had only been out 7 days we hadn't really had time to get word perfect by then; fuelled by JD, no-one noticed.

WH and I had spent the day trawling the shops around Oxford St and trying to resist the temptation of buying anything so we didn't have to carry it. By 5pm we had had enough and went to meet other Hayseed fans for a barbecue at Bodeans. Meal over, we trecked to the Intrepid Fox to met yet more fans and then hot foot it to the Borderline just around the corner. The evening continued in similar breakneck fashion culminating in a train ride back to our hotel in Slough at almost 2am, following an extremely decadent Greek kebab an hour before on Oxford Circus.

I am now paying for all this activity, aching in places I didn't know I could but strangely I haven't had the crash which would inevitably follow such behaviour over the last 16 years. I hesitate to say it but if I don't crash then I will KNOW I am on the mend.

Now I look forward to seeing the guys in Exeter in March. This morning I even talked our kitchen supplier into going too, another new recruit to the tie-dye and dungaree army.

A chip off the old block

As well as it being Worst Half's birthday this weekend, today middle grandson is 7. His birthday present list read like a catalogue for a tool store. In pole position was a generator because Mummy said he couldn't have any electricity in his shed. After that was an air compressor, by accident really, he thought it was a DIFFERENT generator; a camping light, also for his shed; an electric drill because Grandad wouldn't let him take one of his home; and some screwdrivers to add to his already quite impressive collection.

What he actually got from us was the camping light but in the shape of a rechargeable lead-light so Mummy isn't spending a fortune on batteries for the next 5 years; a reflective work jacket, just like a real builder's; an assortment of bird feeders and bird seed to feed his other passion of bird watching; some garden wildlife books so he can identify the numerous bugs which turn up in the shed and finally the best thing of all in his 7 year old eyes, a freebie mug and pen from a local builder's merchant, only of couse he didn't KNOW it was free.

This little 7 year old, and he is quite little, has the look of his Grandad at the same age. He passionately wants to be a builder just like Grandad and had a real moment of triumph a couple of weeks back when he helped to put the garage door on our new garage. He put the final 5 inch screws in, holding the drill with Grandad like a real pro, only this little builder was standing on an upturned rubbish bucket in order to reach. He has helped redo all the skirting board in the new house and is eagerly waiting for the first fix in the new extension. At parent's evening he entertained his headmistress with a word perfect description of how to scribe a joint. 'My Grandad showed me."

This is the boy who hates being indoors and complains that when the weather is nice his teacher won't allow him to take his work outside, so unlike his older brother who is academically gifted but prefers to sit inside most of the time, his nose in a book or on the pc. They both play football but perversely it is older brother who is the real Beckham, top scorer in his local team. I have memories of the younger boy, outside the back door on a freezing cold day, aged 3, no jumper and taking his shoes off and struggling with a bucket of cold, dirty water, cleaning his bike.

The summer's coming, a house move in the offing and the promise of a huge garden and a better site for his shed, well away from the house. We can only speculate the projects to be undertaken this year. Now 50-year-old Grandad dreams of an early retirement but somehow he's going to have to postpone it for a few years until the apprentice leaves school. Meanwhile the lead light will come in handy for carrying out spying operations when he's not working with Grandad.

The secret's out at last.

Worst Half celebrates his birthday in style this weekend. Last night we had Birthday cake, a few presents and told him of his impending suprise. First off was the presentation of a 'Magic Key' fashioned by middle grandson out of tin foil and cardboard, about 10 inches long it obviously opened a very big lock. All the grandkids were shouting 'It's the key of the door, Grandad' but even they didn't know which door and where it was.

Next up he was given an 'itinerary', travel agent style with flight and accomodation details and then the biggest surprise of all, he gets to go on holiday with his 10 closest family. He read it out loud, the kids and Great Nan, who was there to watch, were totally bemused, 'What is it, what is it?' they were all asking.

So elder daughter explained that in the spring we are all off on holiday for a week, the whole family, on an airoplane, and Grandad is over the moon. The key is for the door of the villa we are going to stay in. WH always wanted to do something like this but never had the time or the opportunity. He's been beaming ever since.

As for me it's a huge relief after keeping a secret like this for the best part of 14 months. The logistics of organising 3 families coming from two directions has been almost a nightmare at times. Especially when they all fall out. I must admit they were all threatened that if WH did find out beforehand it would all be 'off'. He would have never agreed if it had not been all signed, sealed and paid for in full, ever mindful of the cost.

So the secret was kept brilliantly until about a month ago then somebody totally unrelated happened to mention to WH that one of us was having trouble getting their passport photo signed. WH repeated the tale to me. Fortunately the News was on TV and I managed to act quickly for once and gestured to him to shut up as I thought I'd just heard that the mortgage rate had gone up. Well that certainly concentrated his mind and the crisis averted. Several days later he returned to the theme again and I was asked what the passport was for, 'EuroDisney with their Mum in September,' I countered, 'Not that it will probably happen, they're too disorganised' and again changed the subject. Then I left the folder containing all details, payments etc, open on the side in the office, he never even noticed. The same week youngest daughter was quizzing him about driving abroad 'In case I go to Switzerland or anything' she added quickly. The grandkids, too, were asking why they needed a passport photograph 'In case you ever go on holiday,' was the swift answer along with a telling off for some minor misdmeanor to avoid any more questions.

Anyway, we can all breathe easy now; the secret's out and has been the main topic of conversation for the last 24 hours. He never suspected a thing, not once, although he thought I'd been spending a lot of time on the phone, and not just business calls either!

At the end of May we are all off to NE Corfu, I just hope Corfu knows what it is in for.

Oh No it's the big O

WH has a birthday with a zero on Friday, we are celebrating on Saturday and a HUGE surprise will be revealed for the Birthday Boy. Can't say any more yet but it will be great. I'm so excited.

In other directions, I am so busy I don't know where to turn, trying to sell this house, tidy up, do the garden, sort the new house out, sort the business out and organise a monster party and THE surprise.

I saw my Lovely Lyme Doc last week and he is amazed with my progress, I am definitely 50% back to normal, maybe more on a good day. 3 more months of treatment and then I can stop for a while to see if the symptoms return or not. Met with a friend yesterday whom I had not seen for 6 months and she was stunned. This keeps happening a lot now, it's really odd, it takes a while for me to get used to the new improved version, let alone anyone else.

To celebrate both events we are off to the British Press Launch of the new Hayseed Dixie album in London next Monday. If you get chance have a listen, it's brilliant and just like the title, No Covers, there is not a 'cover' in sight. Time to take these guys seriously, especially the writing talent of John Wheeler. It's a new direction for them and we'll be celebrating a new direction for us too.