Life is good ! ?

I can’t help being struck by how much cheerier I feel today. For once I’m not feeling stressed out. I’m not worrying about my benefits for the moment. I dare say I will again when I hear about medicals, results of the latest application or the appeal to the previous one, the job-related activity interview, but for the moment I can relax. Even my health is doing better. I’ve had no abdominal pains for a few days, my knees ache but that is the normality of life & has been so for many many years. The Fox is cooking – a Thai chicken curry, hopefully a bit more successful than the meal we had at the Thai restaurant – so there’s nothing that has to be done today. The sun is even shining, the sky is blue – rare events these days. The Fox seems more relaxed too. Life is suddenly feeling good.

The only slight blot is that our neighbour, Dave, is once more in hospital. He spent months last year in the one at Blackpool due to heart problems. On Tuesday the ambulance was round once more. I had a chat with his wife, Fran, on Wednesday. He apparently started with a bad pain in his head which paracetamol couldn’t alleviate, followed by pains in his legs so he couldn’t walk, sit or stand unaided or without severe pain. It went on for over a week with numerous doctors’ visits. Eventually he started hallucinating.  At that point Fran decided it was time to see what the hospital said.

When he reached the hospital, it sounds as though he saw the same silly Chinese doctor I saw on my second visit to Accident & Emergency. She diagnosed my pancreatitis as a mild case of constipation. In Dave’s case, she decided as he is 71 & was vague on the dates in his medical history he must be suffering from dementia – actually he was just suffering so much discomfort he couldn’t think straight & even started to show the signs of a further heart attack due to the pressure & insensitivity she was showing him. Fran can’t help thinking if they could just sort out the cause of his pain, so he wasn’t on as much morphine, he would be mentally fine. He certainly was before the pain began. It goes to show what happens when you reach a certain age. He’s still not home, having been put in a geriatric ward!

Food & a film

I feel I should be writing about the film we saw yesterday, “Les Miserables” and the subsequent meal, however I’m drawn to write about today’s meal, Spicy Tortilla Lasagne.

I know it sounds rather odd but we have had it before & enjoyed it. I’m back to using up from the freezer, which always tends to mean digging up old favourites or doing some rather more imaginative recipes. This is one such.

The first item on my freezer contents list is half a packet of tortillas. The problem is that they have broken up over their stay in the freezer as items have been thrown on top. They’re far too broken up to use them as wraps. This recipe is the ideal solution.

Essentially the idea is to use tortillas instead of lasagne. So, I line the dish with a couple of tortillas, or what I guess is about 1½-2 tortillas. This I top with essentially a chilli con carne mix, then another tortilla (or rather a layer of tortilla crumbs), more chilli, another tortilla (crumbs in this case), more chilli. Come this evening I will add a topping of breadcrumbs & bung it all in the oven to warm up. A nice easy meal for supermarket shopping day, and a couple of fewer things in the freezer – the tortillas & some minced beef.

I suppose I know ought to return to yesterday. I have to admit that if we hadn’t seen the London stage performance of Les Mis I think I would feel quite differently about the film. Inevitably I made the mistake of comparing the two, or even three when I think of other non-musical films & the TV series starring Frank Finlay in 1967 based on the famous Victor Hugo novel. Personally I found the music fresher, the ending more poignant on stage. The film, though, did enable you to see the expression on the actors’ faces in the way you couldn’t on stage. Generally this was an advantage. The exception was in the case of Russell Crowe whose eyes seemed to be telling a different story from the tale he was telling. In this regard I think Anthony Perkins did the best job as Javier in his non-musical version of the tale. He caught the manic obsessionalism of the character in his eyes.

After the film we decided to try the Thai restaurant that opened in Morecambe a few years ago. We’d never been before. Usually we eat out with friends who are nervous of the idea of Thai food, or we are out of the town centre so tend to eat out of the town centre too.

We found the food disappointing – not exactly bad, just disappointing. We both tried a soup, the Fox going chicken while I went king prawn. We both were put out by the amount of inedible matter in the soup – bits of rock hard lemon grass, curry leaves, slices of hard root ginger, and in my case, the shells that still encased the prawns.

We followed it with a couple of stir fries, the Fox went for a spicy chicken & mushroom one, while I went for a sweet & sour chicken one. We both found our meal okay, but we found we were bored before we’d finished the quantity.

I suspect we won’t be going there again. If we do, we would certainly be choosing different dishes!

However, despite the disappointments, it made a very agreeable change from our normal routine & a bit of a morale boost. And ultimately that’s what we wanted & that’s what we found.

Change

I’m somewhat bemused. For months I’ve been writing on about our urge to get away for a break, a bit of a holiday, a pamper. Now the chance has come to do just so & the urge has largely evaporated.  Oh, I’m still keen to arrange something for the spring. I think we do need a change. But the immediate few days away is a different matter.

I’m trying to decide why things have changed. I’ve come up with some theories.

I suppose there’s the element of always wanting the impossible, that same urge that makes you want to step on the grass the moment you see the “Keep off the grass” sign. There have been so many things that had to be done, with hospitals & benefit claims. But they’re all done now, so the impossible is now possible & so less alluring.

Part of it is undoubtedly the weather. We were only thinking of going as far as Kendal for a night or two. Now the snow has gone away we’re once more back in the land of torrential rain. Although we’re only thinking of lazing around the hotel, doing a bit of shopping, maybe seeing old friends, dining at an old favourite restaurant, it doesn’t alter the fact all the above would be more pleasant in the dry. We know the area well so we’re not bothered about seeing the landscape at its best, we just don’t want to see it wet through, hard put to see it through rain spotted glasses & bedraggled dripping hair.

Though maybe it just comes down to the fact we’re planning a treat for ourselves, as the readers of the Fox’s blog will already know. We’re off to the cinema to see “Les Miserables” this afternoon. Then we’re going out for a meal. In other words we’re having a bit of a staycation as it’s fashionably called these days.

Part of it is the pressure we wanted to escape from has eased. I know I will get worked up once I have to go t the Jobcentre for this silly work-related interview, or I hear when I have to have the next ESA medical, but for the moment I can relax a bit, fall back into my comfortable rut.

Or maybe it’s just we’re able to dream a bit again, if only for a short while. Somehow, if you can dream, you can travel the world, and beyond it.  As I’ve said before, the ability to dream can make all the difference.

A long few days

It’s been an odd week.

On Wednesday the car disappeared off for its MOT. It failed – nothing unduly serious, the sort of thing that routinely needs to be done, new tyres, new brake pads etc.  We mentioned we were thinking of changing cars, but like everything else at the moment the actual getting to garages to look at what else was available was on hold. But in the end we rang back & authorised the repairs.

The car did not return that day.  We said we didn’t need it next day so the garage kept it to get the repairs & service done.

Thursday there was no word of progress. I was getting anxious as we’d left my wheelchair in the boot of the car, so I felt housebound. Admittedly with it being as cold as it has been of late, the temptation to go out wasn’t too great. I could always have gone on the Mean Machine, my mobility scooter.

Come Friday lunchtime I gave the garage a ring. The car was done. They would bring it back to us later that day.

By 5pm I was anxiously wondering whether to get on with dinner then or wait until the car had come back. I decided I could at least get started with prepping a few veg. I was just in the midst of slicing some mushrooms when the doorbell went. The car was back.

What is more the car looked resplendent. The colour of our car has a tendency to fade. Some panels definitely were looking shabby. Now the car was once more brilliantly coloured. 

The garage had been so alarmed by the thought of us selling the car, which they greatly love, that they’d decided to buff it up. That was the reason why it had taken so long. They’d only managed to get half the car done by Thursday evening.  They didn’t charge for the rebuff & are clearly hoping it will convince us to keep hold on to the car longer. It certainly looks as good as new, straight off the showroom floor. 

What they don’t seem to realise is that we were thinking of changing our 16 year old car, not because we were ashamed of  it’s appearance, but because it is rather large for our needs, & the Fox is finding it rather heavy to manoeuvre since he’s had his stroke.

Still we were relieved to have the car back as I had to get to the hospital on Saturday. For that I needed my wheelchair.

Friday had finally brought us a little snow, just enough to cover the ground. By Saturday morning, most of it had disappeared as the snow had changed to sleet & rain during the night. What remained by the morning had turned to ice. During the morning I watched anxiously the progress of people on the street. Pedestrians were very nervous as they tended to slip at every step, but cars didn’t seem to have any trouble. Nonetheless we thought it would be wise to set off to Lancaster early just to be on the safe side.

We soon discovered, once we were off our side street, the roads were clear. We had one of the fastest trips we’ve had for a long time. We arrived within half an hour. That meant a long wait as we were over half an hour early & then the appointment was over half an hour late.

Still the good news is that the MRI scan showed I was headed in the right direction. The lesion on my pancreas showed no sign of turning cancerous, so no ops would be necessary. I will have to stay off anti-inflammatory drugs probably for life. I also have to stay off alcohol for at least another 6 months, maybe longer.  The hospital will continue monitoring my progress with another appointment in about 6 month’s time, & another scan in about 9 month’s time.

We went off to a nearby pub to celebrate over a diet Coke.

Change of plans

As you may have realised from my last blog, we were hoping to get away for a few days this week.

Having finished on-line on, I get on to doing some of the telephoning chores I had to do.

Suddenly we had the car having its MOT & service today Wednesday. Needless to say that means no car to go anywhere, let alone on holiday. Still I thought we could go away on Thursday. We were only hoping for a couple of days

Then I ring the hospital to find out what had happened to the appointment to see Gastroenterology again for the results of the MRI scan, now some three weeks away, not the two I was told to expect.

They’d lost my notes. The person I finally got through to was horrified to realise that I hadn’t been sent an appointment. When she did finally re-find the file she discovered I was suppose to be returning after 6 weeks, which would have been a couple of weeks ago. Even allowing a delay while they were waiting for the MRI results I should have been seen by now. The appointments are made by a separate out-patient department. She gave them a right blasting & has arranged for me to have an emergency appointment on Saturday. Bang goes the few days away. Maybe next week….

I will be relieved to have gone to see this department of the hospital. The abdominal pains seem to be worsening again - not too severe so far but they are becoming more severe, more frequent and more long lasting - so I want to know what's happening. I'm clearly not entirely back to normal.

What a disappointment!

Last night we watched the first episode of “Father Brown” (BBC1 2.15pm) which we had recorded earlier in the week.

We both have fond memories of the character of Father Brown from the film, starring Alec Guiness & Peter Finch, the 1970’s series starring Kenneth More, and the original tales by G K Chesterton. So it was with some eager anticipation that we settled down to watch this series.

What a disappointment! We had wondered why this series was being shown in the afternoon throughout the week rather than in prime time in the evening. Now we know why.

This new portrayal of the character lacks any charisma, any impression of shrewdness & great insight into people and what makes them ticks. Also all humour is lost, too. Carrying around a furled umbrella at all times is not enough to indicate the eccentricity of the man. Instead the strong thread of Catholicism is rammed home to the watcher. All a bit much for us.

We had recorded all the rest of the week’s episodes & were intending to record the rest of the series. Instead we’ve scrapped the lost in disgust.

Anticlimax

The form is done. We posted it Wednesday. Now we wait.

Our thoughts turn to the idea of a few days away.  We’re thinking of a couple of days in Kendal. It’s not far away but sufficient for us to get away from our everyday worries & concerns. A bit of a pamper would do us both good, someone else to do the work while we relax.

Then we hear the weather warnings - snow is on our way, heavy snow at that. The hotel we’re thinking of trying to stay in is at the top of the hill overlooking the town, not the easiest place to get to if it snows. Or for that matter to get from once we’re there.

We decide we’d best leave going away a bit longer. Besides we had food that needed to be eaten soon or it would go off. We hate waste. I’m also on my pills that have to be taken in the middle of the night. That inevitably means I tend to be overtired, not in the best of moods for a break.

So come Friday, I venture off for some fish on the Mean Machine, my mobility scooter. I went first thing, before 9am in the hope of beating the expected snow.

By the afternoon, no sign of snow. The evening, none. There was the odd flake but the sort you missed if you blinked or didn’t look very carefully. So now we seem to be in the only area of Britain that isn’t white. It’s bitterly cold but not white. We feel vaguely cheated after all the warnings, as though we’re the only ones not invited to the party.

We were quite looking forward to seeing the world transformed by a coating of white. We know our enthusiasm wouldn’t last long but then hopefully the show wouldn’t last long either. Instead all remains resolutely grey as usual. And we should have gone away after all. Maybe we’ll get going this week….

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