It is a mad, bad world my friends

The dreadful action of a suicide bomber has ruined the lives of many.  At a venue less than 30 miles from me the Manchester Arena, a place we have been to many times has been the target of another suicide bomber.  My family love this place as it holds many happy memories, of Dancing on Ice, of Disney on Ice and the many other lovely shows held here over the years.  All these memories now just lost to the horror and  despair of what went on here last night.  The coward that went amongst the people knowing he held their lives in his hands is now gone, not to get 100 virgins or whatever he hopes to achieve, but yes, he will gain the notoriety he feels is his as he will take his place on the "glory" roll where he has done his bit for ISIS.  Now as a nation we are left to grieve, we become just another statistic as we add up our dead, our dying and our injured.

It is easy to say that they won't break us, that we will continue on with our daily lives but of course we are broken.  And if I feel broken then what about the horrors that are now with the families of the ones lost or broken in the attack.  What memories for the rescue workers and the security workers dealing with the aftermath and how many nightmares to come for the ones caught up in it, who missed out on injury but will still bear the scars of the sights they have seen.  My heart bleeds for the innocent ones to suffer  all this and more to come as they realise the future generations taken away. The grandchildren that should have been born years in the future, the nephew and nieces never to come into the world, families torn apart with this senseless attack on the innocents.

It is always the innocent ones that suffer.  These cowards would not dare to stand in front of somebody who has the means to defend, who are on their guard, of course not.  How very simple and very cowardly to blow up a venue where the targets are children!  Right now I am tired of this world, tired of seeing the pain and anguish people keep having inflicted on them. I am grieving for Manchester just as I have grieved over any country that has suffered in this way.  Cruel, cruel world.

Goodbye my PH sister

Ingrid Wynne sadly lost her fight a week today.  What a shock this was as we had only seen her on the Saturday of our conference.  A lovely young lady she lost her life at the age of just 43.  Ingrid used to be a midwife, bringing babies safely into the world before ph struck her down.

Now anyone that met Ingrid would believe she was fit and healthy.  She walked with poise, her head held high, her dress was impeccable and her manner was lovely and quiet yet bubbly.  We with ph knew differently.  This hidden disease had taken its deadly hold of her and would not let her out of its clutches.  She told me she was going to see the doctor as she felt she had a chest infection beginning.  Sadly the following day she was gone, yet another statistic to ph.

So please do not be fooled by the appearance of your loved one, listen to them, take care of them and above all else cherish them.

My trundle on the banks

This is the view I had  yesterday on my trundle along the banks of the canal and river.  As I need the flat places to go how fortunate I am that this is just half a mile from my home, nestled between the River Calder and the Rochdale Canal.  The banks are pretty easy to manoeuvre, a bit bumpy in parts for a  mobility scooter where the roots are growing through the path but it is a place where I love to be.  The birds were singing their beautiful songs, so many different varieties and the sheep were bleating in the fields.  All this and with the sound of the river babbling away as it went about its business at the side of me.  The trees are looking beautiful  now as the verdant leaves are all out in their glory showing the different hues of green  all around.

I continued on my merry way passing a man canoeing on the canal with an inflatable canoe!  He was happy but the ones fishing not so happy as they had to move their rods so he could get through.  I carried on smiling and happy, (the bombing had not been carried out at this time) until I reached the basin at the canal, just past the second lock on my journey.  The canal barges were just beginning their day as the owners came up onto the decks to let the dogs out, or to release the moorings so they could begin another journey meandering slowly through the canals and locks,  I could smell bacon cooking from one of the barges and on another the owners were on the deck eating their cereal whilst contemplating how their day would go that stretched ahead of them. 

Izzy loves to be on the canal when the lock gates are opening,  to help with pushing the huge gates open and then looking down this huge void that soon fills with the water to allow the barges to go through on their journey.    All of this so lovely when the sun is shining but not so good when the weather is against us.  

2 Phlebotomy appointments in one day

I went for my weekly warfarin appointment today and then on to the doctors as I had not been feeling the best in the last couple of days.  Ever mindful of catching something in its tracks before it has a chance to develop my surgery encourages me to do this.  Silent pneumonia was diagnosed in the past this way.  She could not see much amiss so asked me to go down to the phlebotomy department to have my blood tested for  the second time in a morning,  this one to check for lots of things.   This was to be a long wait as a lady collapsed and needed to be hoisted up,  no mean fete as she was huge.  The portable hoist was brought out and two of the girls from the department helped to get her upright.

I was listening to the guy next to me talk to a lady about his house being haunted by  the spirit of a six year old boy who fell out of the window.  Apparently in the house there is always a cold spot in the corner of the room on the outside wall.  This cold spot did not manifest it seems until he heard of the death of the boy by somebody in the village.  Actually I wanted to say maybe he should get some lagging in the wall but kept my mouth shut.  The next person to take his place was a gentleman whose family were Jewish and suffered so many bad things in the war.  He lost man family members but did not know them as he came along towards the end of the war and he was fortunate his family saw the writing on the wall and moved over to the UK where his mother had been born.  So the hour and ten minutes rolled away quite nicely and now I play the waiting game to see if there is a problem.

Lego

I hear the clatter from the hall and it looks to be yet more of the lego cards kindly picked up from the supermarkets and donated to us for our grandchildren by other residents in the apartments here.  There will be one happy Izzy and a very excited Harry when these turn up at their house today.

Well the weather is beautiful, the sun shining down, the smell of new mown grass is in the air and it is time for Colin to take Izzy swimming at our local pool.  For me it is a day lying on my bed with the windows open and typing this blog on my computer for Colin to sort out for me and post it when he gets a minute.  I wish you all well, enjoy the sunshine but remember, the PH meds mean that for some the sun is not our friend.  Many people with ph do not know this and get very sunburned, stay safe, cover up.  

Warm love to all and once again thank you for bothering to click the like button or commenting on my blog.  

Carole xxx

Oh just a` quickie.  Some of you know I was gutted not to find the time to get my hair cut before our conference.  Tried to get an appointment when we came home but so many hospital visits, etc going on it was not easy to get one almost immediately.  I was talking to three friends who all go to a walk in hairdressers so I decided to give it a try.  No appointments are made and they just do a dry cut.  This suits me as I normally pay out for washing, cutting and straightening and then wash it again as soon as I arrive home!   I was not so keen on the idea, after all the price was just £6!!!! how good could it be, mine charges almost seven times that.  They do not wash or dry hair, one just goes into the shop and sits and waits until their turn.  I was shocked then when the lady that did mine showed me her credentials in the form of many certificates for hairdressing and she spent about half an hour cutting my hair.  I love the cut so far but as I have not yet washed it so we will see how it goes. 

Ever hopeful  xx