Busy time

As you may have gathered from my silence, we seem to have had a busy few days.

It started with the dentist on Friday. We weren't there long - we both got a clean bill of health - but it was sufficient to disrupt the day.

Much of Saturday was spent trying to book our holiday. We finally thought we'd found the ideal place for us. Before committing us, I raised a few questions about access. We'd looked at all the pictures the had on-line, half a dozen or so. All looked flat except for a draught excluder at the entrance. That I can manage. But what about from the parking place to the building entrance? And is the shower big enough for a seat? They said they'd ring me back when they had spoken to the owner.

In the meanwhile I told the Fox & we started to get excited, even checking out flights to Nice. Bad mistake. They finally got back on Sunday afternoon. Apparently the parking area was above the property entrance. In between was five steps. So much for that place! Why can't they say that in the blurb? It's frustrating, & disappointing, when you find you can't get in even after spending hours trying to locate suitable properties. 

So as far as the holiday goes, we're back to square one. We thought we'd try our second choice. I was going to go ahead & try to book that this morning to discover that it is now fully booked until late May & we were hoping to go in April, before I got too tied up with my struggle over my benefits. We'll have to have another look, another discussion, another decision. We're beginning to wonder if it's worth the effort. And yet I think we both could do with a holiday before too long.

Why I didn't get around to doing anything about it on Monday is because yesterday was spent at the hospital, the audiology department. The Fox is now supposed to be trying out sound therapy to see if that helps with his tinnitus. We're not convinced but he'll give it a go. He'll be getting another appointment in three months time.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, the Fox had chance to talk to Fran, our neighbour. We've still not seen her husband, Dave, around. It seems he's still in hospital in Blackpool. It's been over five weeks now & Fran is visibly tiring with the daily trips to seem him so far away. It seems they've decided he needs open heart surgery to replace a faulty valve. But first they had to operate on a blockage on his throat. This was done last Friday. Because of his various health problems, they had to do this without full anaesthetic. Dave was terrified. However, he has survived, if a little sorry for himself. Once he's over that op, they will operate on his heart. Meanwhile he stays in hospital.


We hear, too, that our friend, Den, who married Fran a couple of years ago, has now got a re-emergence of the cancer which caused him to have a section of both his ears cut off. It's apparently a result of his military service in the fifties, in the fierce sun of the Middle East without proper protection. National Service has much to be blamed for. We're now waiting to hear what treatment he is to have. He's anxious about leaving Fran on her own overnight while he is in hospital having an operation when she herself is in poor health at the moment & he is doing all the caring.
 
At last I feel I have chance to get back to some normality. I've duly stripped Basil Bush & made a fresh pesto for a pasta dish I'm making this evening with pancetta & chestnut mushrooms. This afternoon we'll probably get off to the Pub with PD. And there's that other sign of normality. I've got chance to chunter on to you lot & catch up on the blogs of some of our friends.