Friday, June 26, 2009
Medical matters
I don't like shopping!
I rarely go and do any shopping other than to buy food.
If there are other things which have to be bought new then I am very content to find a website and send off my order and payment and wait a couple of days for a parcel.
And of course I much prefer just to see what comes my way that has been discarded by somebody else.
That song - Second Hand Rose could have been about me.
But just now we have no choice. We both know that it is time for eyes to be re-tested.
Now, the eyes might not have changed - in which case I need do no shopping.
But Bill will have to because his everyday varifocals got scratched badly in Thailand.
You might wonder why I needed to even look at frames at this stage.
Well, I needed to know that the place where we had our eyes tested had some frames that I like.
We went to 5 opticians. At first we shunned SpecSavers because of the smooth men in suits waiting inside to pounce on us.
We looked at frames in all the others and found almost nothing that we wanted.
The fashion just now is for very small frames - hardly more than an inch from top to bottom.
I prefer a larger frame and feel that varifocals operate better within a bigger frame.
So, having traipsed round all the others we thought we had better look at SpecSavers where we went last time.
And I found frames!
And the men in suits were not so smooth and patronising as we had feared.
So we made an appointment for eye tests next Tuesday and the man in a suit wrote down which frames I liked, because I will be sure to have forgotten.
Why does having to source what, in fact, is a medical need have to feel like shopping?
Medical needs are on our minds today. We have been informed that the plans for the medical centre in front of our house have been passed - we got a letter this morning.
Did we ever think that these plans were going to be thrown out?
This was a "done deal" even before the application went in.
This evening we have been studying all the web site material about it.
Queries and and answers about access to the site for pedestrians, cars, disabled - even the dust cart were dealt with as long ago as last October.
Each day I look out of the window and feel sad. Sometimes I gulp in horror at how I perceive that things will look.
If it all gets too much for me then maybe we will have to move - just after getting our new kitchen and bathroom and having accepted that this is our home for a good long time to come.
But we won't know how I will feel for some time yet.
The building must be started within 3 years of the application - but of course I expect work to start very soon.
What of the rest of the day?
Not much really. The stuff bought from the woman in Leigh is still strewn over the table in the lounge.
We did a little more food shopping - trying the market stall for potatoes and things.
And they were good!
People have played tennis.
And of course Michael Jackson has died.
I was never a fan, though I can see where some of his appeal lay. I do actually like the song "Billie Jean".
His life in many ways was a tragedy as he built himself into being a caricature of what he thought he ought to be.
Maybe this was just the right time for him to go.
The massive concert tour due to start next week could have been a disaster, though his fans would have tried to protect him from knowing that. Michael Jackson's life, already a mess could have become very messy indeed.
The emotional loss felt by so many apparently, has been likened to what happened when Diana died.
Strange - I also thought that maybe she, too, was heading for her life unfolding into a complete mess and her death saved her from further tragedy.
Two of a kind maybe.
And just now I care more about another death - imminent, of somebody I have hardly met.
I knew his wife, Margaret Goodwin, when I was a child and played with her and her sisters at their rambling house that her parents developed as a Quaker old peoples' home.
Margaret and husband David's daughter, Fiona married our nephew Stephen.
Now Fiona and her sister are very close to giving birth to sons - Fiona and Stephens baby will be called Ruben.
It is unlikely that David will ever see these grandsons.
This all just sounds so sad for them all and they all feel like they are a part of me - and Michael Jackson does not.
But life goes on - years get added to years and people have birthdays.
Scroll down to see Bill's birthday evening out in Thailand.
I rarely go and do any shopping other than to buy food.
If there are other things which have to be bought new then I am very content to find a website and send off my order and payment and wait a couple of days for a parcel.
And of course I much prefer just to see what comes my way that has been discarded by somebody else.
That song - Second Hand Rose could have been about me.
But just now we have no choice. We both know that it is time for eyes to be re-tested.
Now, the eyes might not have changed - in which case I need do no shopping.
But Bill will have to because his everyday varifocals got scratched badly in Thailand.
You might wonder why I needed to even look at frames at this stage.
Well, I needed to know that the place where we had our eyes tested had some frames that I like.
We went to 5 opticians. At first we shunned SpecSavers because of the smooth men in suits waiting inside to pounce on us.
We looked at frames in all the others and found almost nothing that we wanted.
The fashion just now is for very small frames - hardly more than an inch from top to bottom.
I prefer a larger frame and feel that varifocals operate better within a bigger frame.
So, having traipsed round all the others we thought we had better look at SpecSavers where we went last time.
And I found frames!
And the men in suits were not so smooth and patronising as we had feared.
So we made an appointment for eye tests next Tuesday and the man in a suit wrote down which frames I liked, because I will be sure to have forgotten.
Why does having to source what, in fact, is a medical need have to feel like shopping?
Medical needs are on our minds today. We have been informed that the plans for the medical centre in front of our house have been passed - we got a letter this morning.
Did we ever think that these plans were going to be thrown out?
This was a "done deal" even before the application went in.
This evening we have been studying all the web site material about it.
Queries and and answers about access to the site for pedestrians, cars, disabled - even the dust cart were dealt with as long ago as last October.
Each day I look out of the window and feel sad. Sometimes I gulp in horror at how I perceive that things will look.
If it all gets too much for me then maybe we will have to move - just after getting our new kitchen and bathroom and having accepted that this is our home for a good long time to come.
But we won't know how I will feel for some time yet.
The building must be started within 3 years of the application - but of course I expect work to start very soon.
What of the rest of the day?
Not much really. The stuff bought from the woman in Leigh is still strewn over the table in the lounge.
We did a little more food shopping - trying the market stall for potatoes and things.
And they were good!
People have played tennis.
And of course Michael Jackson has died.
I was never a fan, though I can see where some of his appeal lay. I do actually like the song "Billie Jean".
His life in many ways was a tragedy as he built himself into being a caricature of what he thought he ought to be.
Maybe this was just the right time for him to go.
The massive concert tour due to start next week could have been a disaster, though his fans would have tried to protect him from knowing that. Michael Jackson's life, already a mess could have become very messy indeed.
The emotional loss felt by so many apparently, has been likened to what happened when Diana died.
Strange - I also thought that maybe she, too, was heading for her life unfolding into a complete mess and her death saved her from further tragedy.
Two of a kind maybe.
And just now I care more about another death - imminent, of somebody I have hardly met.
I knew his wife, Margaret Goodwin, when I was a child and played with her and her sisters at their rambling house that her parents developed as a Quaker old peoples' home.
Margaret and husband David's daughter, Fiona married our nephew Stephen.
Now Fiona and her sister are very close to giving birth to sons - Fiona and Stephens baby will be called Ruben.
It is unlikely that David will ever see these grandsons.
This all just sounds so sad for them all and they all feel like they are a part of me - and Michael Jackson does not.
But life goes on - years get added to years and people have birthdays.
Scroll down to see Bill's birthday evening out in Thailand.
