Marmite Man

Davis Cup Final

Did you watch these three matches to try to get us back the Davis Cup, I believe it is almost 80 years since we last won this.  I watched it, albeit a little late as we had been out for lunch.  I was so careful NOT to look at any coverage or news before I got to watch it on my planner.

I had however seen the other two matches where he won, yes I know he also played with his brother and the whole team played amazingly well and must be so pleased of their achievement to bring this cup back to Great Britain.  Team effort was all that it was about but for me it was to watch Andy.

Andy is a marmite man. I think you either love or hate him, I love him (though I hate marmite)   I never had any interest in tennis until he came on the scene as a raw young man, disliked by many as he always seemed to go to pieces when the other guy was winning and he just appeared to fold.  I immediately took to him as I do tend to go for the ones that get slated for things they do.  I know he wasn't the best person to talk to after matches, appearing often to be surly though I prefer to think he was just shy.

I watched this young guy rise up through the ranks to become seeded 2 in the world.  I believe he did gain a lot in popularity a few years ago when he narrowly missed out on winning Wimbledon to Federer in 2012. We saw him burst into tears when he was asked to give his little speech and he told us that he would try but it would be so hard.  I cried for him.  Now though he has gone on to do such great things for us.  People say he isn't playing for us as he is NOT English but he did most of his training in England as there were not enough decent players to match him in Scotland so daily his mom Judy drove him into England where he met with good players so he could improve his game.  I love his scottish burr when he talks and I have loved watching his game improve to where he is now.  He is now married to a lovely lady and about to become a father for the first time.  Everything in the garden is rosy for this young man and I hope he becomes number 1 seed before too long.  Well done Andy for helping to bring back the cup for Great Britain.

These boots were NOT made for walking, well not without socks anyway.

My day for my full blood count at my local hospital to check my liver function and also for warfarin.   As it is only around the corner from me and the parking is so difficult I decided to walk, to take it slow and steady and see how I went on.  Eager to get a move on as I was hoping to do this in between drying two washer loads of bedding I put my previous thoughts aside about nice and steady and hurried out of the house.  I went without socks on my feet and wore only my boots.  Big mistake.  The boots, though comfy are not made to be worn without socks.  I hadn't gone many steps when I felt the tell tale rubbing of the boots against my heels.  It was quite a painful journey then to the hospital where bloods were carried out quickly and efficiently by my team.  Onwards then home and the relief on entering the hall to take my boots off.  Oh my, what an absolute mess.  Now I expected my heels to be rubbed raw, stupid me but not what I did encounter when the said boots were off.  The blood was all over the insides of the boots.  It seems that as my blood must be thin, likely over the accepted 2.5 as I walked my clotting didn't stand a chance and the result was an absolute mess.  Once inside it took some time to clot and now I am sporting two huge plasters on my heels.  I shan't  be doing that again in a hurry.  I now have the joy of cleaning the blood from the inside of my boots.  Not a pretty task.

Skeletal remains

Not half as shocking as it sounds.  My last blog showed a picture of Izzy stood next to a skeleton who was slouched in his chair reading his newspaper.  Izzy is fascinated by bones and the human body so I down loaded her an ap so she can see inside our bodies from all he organs, muscle etc and of course the bones.  Now she tells me our next set of stories I make up must be about her and skeletons. Must get my thinking cap on as we will be having her stay over again very soon and for her the highlight of going to bed is a cuddle with grandma and a new story.  They must always include grandad who rescues her and not be scary, well maybe just a little!  Something for me to ponder over whilst at my pottery class this afternoon.

On my own again

Gordie has gone, on his way to his appointments and Colin has taken our motor home in for some remedial work before it runs out of its warranty.  Only a bit needs to be done but the journey there and back will take most of the morning.  He will also call in on the way back to House of Fraser where I have asked him to return one pair of jeans bought over the weekend.  So here I am, alone again and I must say the house seems really quiet after having Gordie stay over.  He is such a a great guy and I have loved to hear both Colin and Gordie reliving moments from the past, most of them funny.  Though our place is too small to have people stay over for long ( one of the reasons I now want a bigger house) I really love it when people stay a few days.  We always seem to do fun things so as to entertain them and we always have a good time.  Already I am looking forward to his return, hopefully with his lovely wife Pat.  Go well Gordie.

Can you remember when?

We have been invited to the wedding of a friends daughter and on reading the wedding present list it took me back to my first marriage as a very young teenager.  I was born a few years after the war and money was tight for most people at this time.  By the time I grew up and got married we were still living in the era of make do and mend.  We were very fortunate that my mom and dad bought us a new three piece suite, an extremely lovely present in those days.  However the rest of our home was made up of families cast offs.  We had a bed given by another family member and very lumpy it was too as I recall.  Our sideboard was given to us from my godparents who were replacing theirs.  Actually it was an amazing piece of kit, having lights that lit up when opening the drinks cabinet, not that we could afford drinks to go in it!  Table and chairs were given by another family member.  I remember well our cutlery set which was donated to us by some kind person, I believe it was an aunt  One of the tines on the fork was bent and we couldn't straighten it no matter how hard we tried so we always tried to make sure we we didn't get this fork as it stabbed us in our cheek whenever we took a fork full.  We didn't have a washer, all clothes were washed by hand and dried around the fire if the weather was too bad to be hung out.  Would I want the young ones to go back to this era, no of course not BUT ....... how we appreciated things then as we saved up and did without to buy each new piece of furniture or crockery, it really meant something then.  We saved every spare penny to get a deposit on a house, it took time but oh the joy of getting the keys to a house that would, in time, really be our own. I have many memories of those bygone days, some good, some bad.  Of course there are things I would change were I able but some things I would not.  I hope the young ones of today can one day look back on great memories.  I know the young can have it rough now too but at least their first house, rented or bought will have a bathroom.  I had no bathroom but an outside toilet.  When I tell my children of how we struggled then they can't really understand it but the post war  babies did have it a bit rough!

Crikey I forgot!

We just received a card today and as I was opening it I said oh no it is way too early for Christmas cards.  Imagine my surprise then when I opened it to see it said Happy Anniversary.  I had totally forgotten it is seventeen years since I married Colin on the 4th December.  How time flies.  We won't be doing much to celebrate as we have Izzy overnight that day but we don't do much in the evenings anyway since ph reared its oh so ugly head.  When we married many said it wouldn't last six months as we married four months after we met.  Hope those that see how wrong they were can also see how we are very happy together.  We have had ups and downs along the way but we are stronger than ever  and we intend to make a good few more of these anniversaries yet.  Thanks for the reminder Jan, though I doubt Colin has forgotten but my brain with lack of oxygen lets me down on many occasions such as these.

HELP ....... I need somebody.

Oh my word.  Pottery from hell.  I had begun to go "off" before I went to class.  You know how we get the overwhelming feeling of battery failure.  I decided that I would fight this, how many times have we heard people to tell us to work through it and we KNOW we can't.  So why then did I think I knew differently and that I could.  I was so wrong.

It began almost as soon as I arrived as I couldn't find my clay.  Now I knew even when I did find it amongst all the other bags I wouldn't lift it but at least it would be a start.  I rummaged and struggled, all the time with my head bent, we know that is a definite no no.  Kim came to my rescue, a really lovely bubbly girl who is always so full of life and always has much to say so I really enjoy listening to her stories.  She came over and looked for it too but it turned out to be in another cupboard.  Now it doesn't seem much to a layman but I could feel the effects of having my head down and so sat down as soon as I could.  Helen came over and gave me a new assignment to do, all about different layerings and depths etc.  I set to it but I honestly didn't feel like it at all, unlike me who so looks forward to this class.  Towards the end of the lesson I was just throwing things on and pressing all sorts of shapes just to finish the thing.  I can't even tell you how it looked in the end as I didn't bother to stand up to see the whole effect.

I washed up my brush I had used for the slip and put away my board and sat down again.  I was so sure I was going to either faint or throw up.  My legs were wobbly and I felt so bad.  Hellen looked at me and asked if I was alright.  I said I would be fine, it was just ph rearing its oh so ugly head again.   Unbeknown to me Linda, my lovely friend who lives in the same building as me saw what was happening.  She herself has a bad heart as she has cardiomyopathy so knew immediately action needed to be taken.  Kim said I had gone chalk white and Pauline asked if I was cold, I said no, on the contrary red hot.  Anyway Linda came with my coat and helped me on with it and I gave her my car keys.  No way could I have driven home, not for my own safety or that of other road users would I have been so irresponsible.  Linda had abandoned her pottery to do this for me, how fortunate am I to have such a friend.  Off she went to bring my car down.  I had not given a thought to explain to her how to start the engine.  My car is the new mini cooper and it does not have a start button on it.  It has a sort of lever thing you push down on the dash when your foot is on the clutch.  Anyway I began to walk the long mile to the door, of course it is not really a mile but oh, how it seemed it.  The rooms are very big, being an old mill and I swayed from one obstacle to another holding on where I could.  Kim came up behind and helped to hold me up.  I told her I would be ok but she was so lovely, being adamant that there was no way she was going to sit back whilst I got to the door.  I barely know her so I was so touched.  If I were younger I would certainly love to be in her circles as she is such fun and has a mind of her own and uses it!  I like this.

Result was Linda took me straight into our place where Colin undressed me and got me to bed.  Moving was so difficult, just to sit up for a drink took so much effort.  My limbs were so heavy, I could barely even turn over in bed.   What a terrible night, it went on and on and on.  I fell asleep eventually and woke to another day.  I am at least up, though not dressed yet, must do though as dentist as noon.  My legs are shaky but I don't think I should call the trial team.  Is it the drug or my ph itself, who knows but I am at Hallamshire for my trial follow up on Wednesday.  If I go off like that again before then I have a 24 hour emergency number and I may well ring it.  In the meantime Colin is coming with me to the dentist as there are a few stairs to climb to the door.  How I hate all this, being dependant on others was alien to me before I got ph.

Dentist

Well I must say my dentist is ace.  Always mindful of my ph condition he is very careful not to stress me with all he does, very patient too.  I needed three injections in total and he was so good I barely felt a thing.  Every step of the way through the fillings he kept stopping and asking if I was ok, I was fine.  When he had finished I thanked him for his kindness and patience.  I have the BEST dentist I could ever have. 

So there you have it, yet another blog.  Hope I am not boring you with them. Go well all of you and thank you so much for taking the time to read them, it means a lot, also the comments.

Carole xxxxx