Grandma P's Ramblings Through Life

Off to the hospital this morning.
The first task was to drink a big jug of water - sat there for an hour, doing sudoku puzzles.
Then into the scanner room.
"Just a small scratch" he says. It hurt - but hey, he got the cannula in first time, so mustn't grumble.
It is bruising well now, though.
The dye was injected into my veins - feels peculiar.
CT scans are so much easier and quicker now than 20 years ago.
Soon it was done.

Home to sort out lunch.
Jane and Geoff called in just as we were finishing.
Hooray! I didn't have to consider doing anything "useful".

Later to the track at Brighton.
I was not chief - managed to persuade, perhaps, the best timekeeper in the country to do the job.
Ha - Stella....can you guess who I am referring to?
I worked on first place with Dave Vidler - have known him for years. He always was a bit of a timekeeping automaton!
We don't meet up very often these days.
We were working with electrics and I was not at all bad - just not quite consistent enough. My average error at the end of the evening was  under 4 hundredths of a second.
But Dave? How does he do it?
His average error was only just over 1 hundredth of a second. So many times his watch stopped at exactly the same moment as the electric, digital clock.
"Bingo" we call that.
I was quite proud that twice I was actually better than he was!

It grew quite chilly as the evening wore on - just a little autumnal.
I abandoned notions of going down to the sea front for some chips. We drove home instead and had parsnip and ginger soup.

Tomorrow I am off to the shop again. I am much happier to offer to do other peoples' days so that they can cover our missing Mondays when we are in Thailand. I don't want to be paying somebody £30 a day to cover our duties.

I have been stupid!
Firstly I got my CT scan appointment wrong and then seemed to allow it to throw the rest of the day into a daze of nothingness.
A letter came a couple of weeks ago, advising me of a new time for my scan. We both noted the new time - but failed to note that it was to be on a new day.
So, for the second time recently, Bill made his own way to his osteopath's appointment and for the second time he was surprised to find me in the waiting room at the clinic with a tale of me getting my appointment muddled. Last time I thought I had an appointment with the nurse - only to be told I had arrived 24 hours early.
So, tomorrow morning I shall be at the hospital.
And I can't therefore be with Dr O. I now have an appointment to see him in a week's time.

Once we got home, I idled. Then I began to prepare some things for eBay describing - but failed to actually describe any of them.
I must be more diligent tomorrow.

I am now looking back a week to our visit to Godstone Farm. I think I commented last Tuesday that we might not visit again - young Ecky is not so young anymore and has outgtrown it.
Here are some family pictures - and a donkey.






























 


















The laughing donkey just had to be included.
















Having wondered if we might have time to see Michaela before Ashley and Ekatarina returned home, it was a delight to find M and the boys at Godstone Farm.
Robert was far to busy, here, there and everywhere with his friend to have his photograph taken.
But George was happy to oblige.
 


There are lovely big sand pits to play in.



Princess in the castle.






Can you walk yet, George?
I saw you do a couple of steps in the sand pit.

Come on Grandma P! Wake up!
Save for your sleeping for the night hours.

I am not surprised that I have been dozing, for I have been working quite hard today.

I had a mental plan to swap over the positions of 2 of my sections at the shop.
I set to work as soon as we arrived.
It's no good....I would like a bigger area!
My rearrangement finally entailed moving around things in another section, too.
It is all looking good; but somehow I managed to forget to take any photographs. Never mind, I can do that on Thursday; we will do an extra day to cover for somebody else who will do one of the Mondays for us when we are in Thailand.

I have sold well again this week. In fact the weeks since the last rent day are already the best yet. We normally think of July and August as being weak months in the trade - but not so for us.

Time for a cup of tea now - and then maybe some more sleeping.
I have felt pretty good really - far less to grumble about after this weekend.
Tomorrow I will have a CT scan in the morning. This is far less complicated than in days of old (20 years ago).
I have to drink a couple of litres before the scan - but no loger is anything nasty added to the water.
The scan itself takes only a short time these days - it was half an hour when I began these things.
The negative point is getting a needle into a vein to pump a dye round my body. Radiographers can't get needles in well and the dye makes me feel peculiar.
But what a relief to have CT scans - my doctors can get a good clear image of what is going on in my body which can highlight the growth of any nasties.

I know that we spent this date, 46 years ago, with just a few of the people who might read this posting.
Roger, my brother, and our good friends Pete and Jean, were with us in St Margaret's church.
Roger would have been only 16 and probably knew very little about weddings - but then, neither did Bill or I. I hadn't been to one before!
People who did know about weddings might have thought our wedding day a trifle odd - all sorts of unwritten rules were ignored. But I didn't know what the rules were!
But 46 years later we are still together and sharing our lives.
The fact that we spent the morning of our wedding day together doesn't seem to have spelled out disaster.

Today has been special enough for me by being normal. I found the will and the energy to walk round the car boot sale at Epsom. I bought some interesting things to sell.
I also bought 3 items of clothing - 2 skirts and a jumper for just £1.

We spent a comfortable time with breakfast and teas and coffees in the Epsom Assembly Rooms. Nice to sit and chat and watch the world go by.
I felt I needed almost no more food for the rest of the day.

Much of what I bought has been written up and quite a lot is now in the car, ready to take to the shop. I'll take some photos tomorrow.

So, today we were happy with a routine Sunday. Maybe next year we will have to join with nephews and nieces who will marry and have some sort of celebration. It won't be a specially significant  anniversary number, but we will have known each other for 50 years.
We must be really old!
And we have our good friends, Pete and Jean celebrating their Golden Wedding next year.
They must be really old too!
Bill and I had our first date on the day of their wedding.

A nice touch about today was that the first hymn that was sung on BBC Songs of Praise was also sung at our wedding.
In fact I walked down the aisle to Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven. I should have walked down to the Wedding March (somehow I seemed to know about that!) - but my grandparents were still walking down the aisle, very slowly - for Grandad was quite badly crippled with arthritis.

We have been at the track today. It was lovely to be amongst all the good people there.
When anybody gets down about the state of 21st century society, then go along and help with something - sport, music, line dancing, marching bands, baton twirling......just about anything; It is amongst such activities that one finds many unsung heroes and many hard working, dedicated young people.
We were timekeeping at the men's southern league match - the league our B team are involved in.
Our A team are in the national league and were, today, at Gateshead.
If we had but thought, maybe we could have loaded Ashley's boxes onto the coach and saved ourselves any bother.
We have actually cut down the bother and the expense by opting not to take Ashley (and Ecky's stuff) to Newcastle ourselves.
If we had driven up we would have spent about £120 on fuel and another £100 (minimum) for 3 nights accomodation. Then with extra spending, we reckon it could have come to about £300.
I think we might be able to have a carrier take it all for about £30.
Sorry we won't see them all at the beginning of September, but it feels better to wait until early Spring when they have the extension built.

Anyway, back to the athletics. I was chief timekeeper - amongst mostly good friends.
The other 2 might become good friends - but we had never met them before.
One of the new guys had hardly done any timekeeping before and turned up ready to work with a really old stop watch with hands - a museum piece!
Bill let him use his spare digital watch.

Competition was good - with Crawley coming out on top.
The timekeepers were relaxed - very laid back and I was no worse at keeping concentration going than some others.
But it has made me tired.
Or maybe the tiredness is as a result of 3 hours awake during last night. I was down with a cup of tea and the TV for a while. "Come Dine with Me" seems to be available to watch on some channel at almost every hour of the day or night!

Crawley didn't just win at athletics today. We could hear the cheers from the football stadium as Crawley won their first home match in the main football league.

It seems ages ago now that I enjoyed a good buying session at a car boot sale - what with rain and feeling poorly.
I am determined that tomorrow I shall be out early.
Here are some things I bought a little while back.






























Humpty, the AA man, is worth very little - but I did think he was fun.
I hope that perhaps somebody else will think the same in the run up to Christmas.

Well done, Grandma!
Grandma P started a sort of fight back today.

I haven't done so very much. I bless my man who has kept things organised.
This morning I went through my wardrobe.
There were too many shoes. I buy shoes, thinking they will be comfortable. Often they turn out to be crippling.
My wide foot, high instep and the neuropathy in my toes make close fitting neat shoes a nightmare.
Summer is good, when I can wear sandals - and I have found some good ones at car boot sales this summer.
Winter is OK, too when I can wear my big, wide suede boots.
It is pointless holding on to too many pairs of shoes that I would never consider wearing - some have me crippled before I have reached the car parked outside the house!
I also discarded some clothes that didn't turn out to be right for me - all from car boot sales.
This afternoon we took it all to the hospice shop.

Then we did a little food shopping. I had not intended to buy much for the freezer is pretty well full. But the sell by date bay was undergoing a double reduction session. How could I refuse 2 chicken breasts in lime and coriander sauce for £1.62? Got a few other similar bargains.

When we left Asda, Bill wondered if we should visit his sister, Jane.
I have not really wanted to be very sociable.
But I agreed and we enjoyed a cup of tea with Jane and Geoff and a good chat. Jane beats me in the medical grumbles stakes!

I didn't mean to suggest that Jane - or me - spend much time grumbling about health. It is just that we both have more than we want to report about our health situations. And I don't think Jane gets stages when she could say she feels really well - and at least I was feeling that until recently.


Before I go I want to share a couple of pictures of Jessica. They came through from Mam this week. She also sent a filmlet of John and his class dancing and singing, but it's on its side!




























































I have done an extra blog again today. This time with photos taken at Ightham Mote.
Scroll down to find them.

I feel tired now, of course. Tomorrow we will be at an athletics match and maybe I will be chief timekeeper.

This evening I look back to last Friday.
Ashley went to London on his own and Bill and I and Ekatarina went to Ightham Mote - a National Trust house that I had wanted to visit.
Here are some of our pictures - I am sure they might entice others to visit this lovely place too.

This was our first view of the house.











Ightham Mote is Medieval - a square building, surrounding a courtyard.



The gardens were lovely - a mixture of formal and informal.
The curly whirly tree.














































































We will certainly visit Ightham Mote again - it's just beyond Sevenoaks.

Thank you to people who reminded me that the blue flower in the Wiltshire garden is an agapanthus.

There was a time - not so long ago, when I marvelled at how well I felt.
People would tell me how good I was looking and I would readily agree that I felt great.
They were good times.
Nobody promised me that life would be plain sailing; I always knew that the problems would come and go.
The last month has thrown up one of the bad times.
I feel so tired and fragile.
With the body I now have, there could be several different causes and I am looking forward to embarking on finding out what the causes might be and having some help putting things right.
I am really glad that I shall have a CT scan next week - hopefully the results of that will eradicate the worst possible scenario.
Dr Oliver will have some ideas about what to do about the bone scan results.
I am guessing he might be wanting a blood test to check for the various functions that could have gone wrong.
He will also give me my Vitamin B12 injection.
Meanwhile I doze too often and have little energy to get on with things. That is quite depressing.
Tomorrow is another day - maybe I will find a little more zest for life.
I have posted an extra blog today - about our trip to Wiltshire.
That was a bad day for health - for all of us.
Scroll down and see some pictures.

It is over 2 weeks now since we drove the 100 miles to visit Roger and Sue in Market Lavington for a fun day.
Sadly, it didn't turn out to be such a fun day.
One by one we went down like nine pins with a bug. Bill had started it and was vaguely recovering.
I felt quite bad all day.
Ekatarina joined in during the afternoon and Ashley began to feel very rough on the journey home.
Nevertheless photos were taken.
First - some of Ecky's.















Now a sad photograph.....
This picture could tell so many stories.
What it actually tells is..."I feel wretched and I am about to puke"



Bill took pictures of flowers in Roger and Sue's garden.

He has called it Blue Lily - but I am sure it is not a lily.
















Willow the cat has caught a frog.

Labels: Places in England

The old couple are now home alone.
And I presume Ashley and Ekatarina are now at their home.
I have not yet done any more photos.
I decided I wanted to sort out our income and spendings  for shop and EBay. I still have things, bought during the last 2 weeks to be written up.
I listed 34 items on EBay that failed to sell on their first time out on EBay.
It was good to feel that I was getting some control back over these things.
I also know that I sold the huge, heavy red vase that I have had in the shop for a short while.
I am still yawning lots - so run down. The urge to sleep is quite strong.
I must make an appointment for my B12 injection.
I already have appointments for next week - CT scan and doctor's.
Bill will be off to the dentist tomorrow - a large chunk of tooth/filling came off whilst he was eating a banana last week.
I shall watch "Who do You Think You Are" and hopefully will stay awake until bedtime.