Friday 16 March 2012

Retail Therapy Part Deux

Yesterday I finally got to spend some money. This was really an extension of the attempt at retail therapy started last Saturday. After a lot of deliberation we went back to John Lewis, breathed a sigh of relief that the TV we wanted was still there and nabbed it. While we were at it we also bough a blue ray DVD player. I reasoned that as I'm likely to be stuck in front of the TV for long periods of time over the coming months/years I may as well have something that doesn't take a week to warm up and doesn't make ominous clicking sounds during my favourite programmes. The DVD player was available to take with us straight away but we have to wait until this Saturday for the TV. I'm quite looking forward to it.

I actually manged to walk to John Lewis from the car and made my way around MK center bench by bench. I was quite proud of myself but my goodness did I feel it when I got home. I tried to fight it but unable to stop yawning or keep my eyes open I finally gave in and had a quite couple of hours snooze with the cats. I was woken up by a call from John Lewis telling me that they'd overcharged by forty pounds and wanted my card number for a refund. Brilliant!

The hunt for a sofa bed or indeed any type of bed continues for Svetlana's visit next weekend. So far we've missed out on one auction on ebay but are keeping watch on two others. If all else fails we'll be nipping out to get a camp bed and Andrew will have to give up his room.

I must be in a spending mood as today I've been on the Next website and ordered some new pj's and some t-shirts. The pj's will go into my transplant bag, which I've been advised to pack and keep either in the car or by the door. The t-shirts are to replace the ones I'm currently wearing at they have become shapeless and stained and will also come in handy when I'm well enough to start wearing normal clothing again. After all I'm not going to spend up to six weeks slopping around in my PJ's. Especially as I'm told patients are advised to take strolls around the grounds in the few days before they are sent home. I find wearing normal clothing in hospital makes me feel better. If I can be bothered to get dressed I know I'm on the mend. The effect is purely psychological but if it helps, it helps. It is also nicer for your visitors.

In the news is the awful story of the coach crash involving eleven and twelve year olds on a school trip. So far the cause has not been established but there are three possibilities, 1. there was some mechanical failure, 2. the coach driver had a heart attack or some other medical emergency or 3. the coach driver chose that moment to change a DVD. I've been on a fair few school trips in my time and in my experience it is usually the spare driver or one of the teachers that change the DVD's, mainly because in the coaches I've been on the DVD player has been out of reach of the driver, which is probably a safety feature. I appreciate that not all coaches are built the same but I'd be surprised if the driver was expected to chose a DVD, remove it from it's box, put it in a machine and get it up and running all while controlling a coach. I think the very natural thing in this sort of circumstance is to look for someone to blame and the driver is always the target and rightly so. What no one ever seems to appreciate though is that the driver has family who are grieving too, so maybe the blame game ought not to be so public until the facts have been fully established. Any crash where lots of lives are lost is a tragedy but somehow it seems more so when the victims are so young. I hope the families involved get answers very soon, it won't make things any better but at least they will know why it happened and that might just help. In the meantime I don't think there will be a parent on the planet who won't be feeling the pain with them while at the same time giving thanks that it wasn't their child.

Andrew has arrived home from school with one of his shoes in a sorry state. He was trying to make them last until the end of this year but it seems fate had other ideas. So it will be off the buy him some more this weekend, honestly once I start spending I can't seem to stop. No wonder I don't do it all that often.

Really looking forward to the big Wales/France match tomorrow where hopefully Wales will win the Grand Slam. Sadly news came in this morning about one of the greats from the 1970's squad. Mervyn Davies or Merv The Swerve, as he was affectionately known, lost his battle with cancer today, he was only sixty five. I hope the current squad gear themselves up and win the Grand Slam as a tribute. That would be very nice and very fitting.

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