under another sun

Saturday morning, and Lorraine and I eventually got up and took Calliope to the vet. My cat was not herself, and barely even yowled in the car with any feeling. Luckily the vet says that it seems nothing is broken, but she has strained her shoulder, (there was a point when she pressed Calliope's shoulder and got a definite response yelp). We came away with painkillers, and I felt reassured. Into town this afternoon, Lorraine with a bit of shopping to do. I went to the barbers and got a trim, and generally caught up a bit on football gossip from the chaps there. All in a good mood as the day's early kick off had resulted in a surprise 3-0 victory for Brighton over Spurs, whose team, the sages of Clippers said some of the Spurs team had been fighting over a woman. Afterwards Lorraine and I mooched to Sainsbury's and laden down, cabbed home. A quiet night in tonight, Lorraine absolutely shattered after the week. Beth home and joined by Emily and Eliza, getting ready for a ...

Lorraine ill with a cough, little voice and generally ill.  She however insisted on driving me to the hospice were she dozed in the carpark, and spoke to Maureen on the phone. She didn't go in, not wanting to infect people. Ken, Hus and Caroline there already. Caroline sitting outside the ward had asked to speak to the nurse to find out what the estimate of how long Janet might have is. The nurse said she could not say, but comforted Caroline who got upset about the situation. I had a chat with Caroline and Hus and a cup of coffee outside in the sun, while Janet was having some care.  I went in to check on Ken and he had been curtained out of Janet's bed while she was having some treatment, so I wheeled him outside to join them. I popped in later, and found Janet on her own. So that's an enema, she said with a grim smile. We chatted for a bit, she is perfectly able to talk and answer perfectly cogently, as long as people speak loud enough. She is always on the brink of ...

So up quite early, after my lovely had brought me a cup of tea, and did laundry and ironing, and a few bits of admin. I was still shattered and slept in the afternoon on the gold sofa while Sonia was here, after chatting to her. I had no desire to go out this evening. Lorraine working really hard at work, and home late. I cooked and we had restful Friday night in front of the TV, which was exactly what we needed. Spoke briefly to Mum, too.

I got up, feeling achey after yesterday's walk, additionally I felt coldy and sinus again. Sauntered down the road to get some bread, then came home and made Lorraine and I bacon and egg sandwiches, then simply returned to bed, where I stayed with my lovely wife reading the Guardian and chatting. Later I spoke to Mum in hospital twice. She had had a comfortable night, and sounded quite cheery. They kept her in overnight tonight too, but fed her supper, and wanted to monitor her. She was very happy to eat. Also let the Tobster know what was going on with Mum and had chats with him. When Lorraine and I did manage to get up we did purposeful things around the house. She had bought a steam cleaner, and we used it on the gold sofa. The grimiest section of which looks much improved now. Then we prepped the big bedroom, where Beth had been, and tore a few inaugural strips of wallpaper. Then off to Hove, picked up Beth from work and dropped her off home with a chair we were giving he...

Beth and Lorraine off to London early this morning, to meet Jade and have a bit of a hen do. Betty stayed till the bitter end, but Lorraine enjoyed a spa morning with the hen party. Jade had a great day apparently. I found bits and pieces to do, including looking at the fox basking in the sun next door. I was feeling a bit wan and tired today generally, the gouty tiredness still making me feel a bit draggy. Lorraine home, and we had a lovely evening simply lurking on the gold sofa together.

Feeling ill. Hot, with a dry rasping cough and wanting to sleep all the time. So rubbish did I feel that I didn't even have the energy to set up my new computer. Instead I spent most of the day nested on the gold sofa, reading books, watching snatches of stuff on my computer and being looked after by Lorraine, who had to do some work in the afternoon.  Watched a half an hour interview from 1975 with John Lennon by whispering Bob Harris. Lennon was an interesting man, an odd mix of prickly and humble and funny. Reading a book of essays by David Foster Wallace, called A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again -- enjoying his essay about David Lynch, which is making me want to watch Lynch again. Before I spent lots of time on the sofa, I spent a good deal of time in bed. This was my view for much of the morning.