Onwards and Upwards, I Guess

It has been very remiss of me to not share my musings with you lately. Much has gone on in the last few weeks and I have failed to put pen to paper, in an electronic sort of way.

I am about to start a new life, but in ways I am finding it hard to let go of the old one. Royal Mail had no such qualms. They pensioned me off in January. I miss getting out and about and meeting people. Just for nostalgia's sake here is a picture of my little "Postman Pat" van I took outside a retirement complex shortly before my accident. Quite apt really.

As for the new, Hester and I are moving to Yorkshire soon. No more commuting up and down the British isles for us. We plan to travel, but this time it will be for pleasure and not for expediency. I suspect now would NOT be a good time to buy shares in Virgin Trains given the sharp drop in revenue they will experience.

Hester started a new job in a Huddersfield school yesterday. She seems to be enjoying it, which is good. I would love to work in education again but after the "incident" at Girton Ladies college many years ago I fear my services would not be sought after.

I promise to not be such a stranger in future. I am going through scary times at the moment and would love to share them with you. It's a big thing to do what I am doing at my age, but I have never lost my sense of adventure despite all my recent hard times, and I hope I never will.

Sweeney You Swine

I have decided to shelve my plans to start a travelogue, for now. Instead I am going to comment, yet again, on the lamentable state of British TV. The reason being I lost a valuable hour of my life, earlier in the week, watching Claire Sweeney: My Big Fat Diet. I should know better than to expect intelligent life at ITV1, but I'm an eternal optimist.
I can't wait to see how Ms Sweeney's programme does at this years BAFTA awards. I put it as the front runner for the "Most Tedious Rehash of the Bleedin' Obvious" gong.
And it gets better. "Here's the science bit" as a famous advert used to say. If Claire eats too much she puts on weight! And not only that. If she puts on weight she finds it harder to jump up and down. If I were to say Nobel, Prize, Physics and Chemistry, I am sure you know what I mean. I'm sure she's got this year all sewn up, and it's only January.
The other BAFTA this piece is bound to scoop is "Programme Most Likely to Make the Average Woman Feel Bad about Herself". Well done Claire, you push off to your expensive gym to shed the pounds you piled on for this ludicrous "experiment".
Then the only thing heavy about you will be the big fat cheque you got for taking part in this charade.

Tempus Fugit (as the posh people say)

It seems that six months have flown by since I last put pen to paper, so to speak. My life has been turned upside down in the last year, as my regular readers know, and the latter half of 2008 was all a bit of a blur, hence the title.

Hester and I did a lot of travelling between Auld Reekie (Edinburgh) and her house in Darkest England, and as a consequence, I have acquired a strange desire to manufacture and sell clothes pegs!

For now, though, I am just going to say a quick hello. More to follow later, Much more.

Take care my dears.

Oh Dear, Oh Dear

After having spent far too much time watching daytime TV in the last few weeks I have finally dragged myself away from the set to try and get my life back on course. Maybe it's my age or possibly it's a by-product of my accident but I feel an even stronger desire, than before, to highlight the world's wrongs. You may think I have lost a bit of my decorum in the process but it is possibly necessary in order to get my point across.
A prime example is "Big Brother"
I can only stand so much of the goings-on of the IQ minus contestants but I did enjoy the companion programmes.
Not any more.
Russell Brand has long since stopped doing the late night programme and now "Big Brother's Little Brother" has gone to the dogs due to the departure of the lovely Dermot O'Leary.
And most of the blame has to be lumped on the, not inconsiderable, shoulders of new "presenter" Zezi Ifore. She has curiously adopted a very dated 1980's "yoof" style despite only having been born half way through the decade!
Although I find it morally reprehensible, I hope she got the job through some sort of "casting couch" style interview. I would hate to think she was hired because someone thought she was even vaguely capable of doing the job. I recently asked a friend if she could find a practical use for Zezi. After much thought she replied "I suppose you could use her as a paperweight, although she might take up an inordinate amount of desk space due to her bulk".
Dermot was a cheeky chappy who was well presented, witty, funny and fitted his clothes nicely. Zezi is......different.
Why not visit her blog and "marvel" at the outpourings of an alumna of Oxford University. If you manage to crack the code and translate it in to intelligible English, please let me know! You can find her at http://www.zezizezi.blogspot.com/

I'm Back

Just a short note to let you all know I am back at the helm. I had plans to go over the wall at night, or even dig a tunnel, but the hospital authorities let me out through the front door on Friday afternoon. They even provided an ambulance to take me home. Still no blue flashing lights but I'm getting used to it by now.
I am currently camped out in Chez Hester with my walking frame, grabber and a small tipple to keep my throat moist. My days are filled with watching TV, writing and reading. Most relaxing, if somewhat limiting.
This morning provided slightly more excitement though. I had a visit from Margaret, the district nurse. She came to remove the staples which were put in to hold my wound together. It was a bit painful at times but the whole thing was soon over. The sad thing about this whole episode is that my bikini wearing days are now over. I can't see it, but I must have a scar about 10 inches long running down my left thigh!
It's good to be back and I look forward to getting my teeth back into my blogging.
Take care my dears.

as bright as a new pin

Well I'm back here to give you all an update on Marteen. She was in the operating theatre for several hours on Wednesday and now has a brand spanking, shiny new hip.
When I saw her on Wednesday evening she was very groggy and in a lot of pain which the medical staff were trying to alliviate for her. I was quite concerned about her that night as she didn't seem to know where she was and was quite confused. By the next morning Marteen had bounced back into the land of the living, when I say bounced it was more sort of hopped as she wasn't allowed to put any weight on the new joint.
Over the last couple of days Marteen has started to improve and we are both relieved to find that both her legs seem to be the same length again, the fractured one had shortened and we had visions of her spending the rest of her life walking round in circles.
She must be getting better, she has started moaning about the hospital food and I have had instructions to take something nice in for her so this afternoon will see her enjoying a bowl of strawberries and cream!
I'm really looking forward to her release and being able to spend some quality time together especially now the weather has picked up.

Who's the daddy?

Hello all again, the title may have you wondering what's going on. It was a question I was nearly asking Marteen, and at her age too!
As I mentioned in my first post Marteen is having a series of tests in hospital and yesterday's test was an ultra sound scan. You can imagine the mileage she got out of that one, being wheeled down to the maternity department and being surrounded by a large collection of pregnant women. She is not pregnant, which is hardly surprising given her age and me not having the relevant equipment to provide such a situation. She did get a few funny looks though, given that a woman of 63 gave birth not so long ago.
We don't know why they did this test but the results were fine. The weirdest test she has had was the person who came in, measured round her ankle and up to her knee on her good leg, then left. Answers on a postcard for that one please!