Rest Days

I am really looking forward to the next two days. Not because I have anything planned but precisely because I don't. I'm going to spend two glorious days doing absolutely nothing, well apart from make meals and watch TV. Although I'm feeling well at the moment I've learned the hard way not to push things, which I've sort of been doing these last two weeks with one thing or another. So some good food, I've lots of fruit and veg lined up for snacking, and a good rest will hopefully set things back to rights. I've been feeling unusually tired these last few days so I've had the warning signs and for once have listened. How good am I?

Yesterday was, I hope, my last busy day for quite some time.

In the morning I went to the warfarin clinic, which mercifully, was rather empty. While waiting I was approached by a very elderly gent who wanted help with his phone. His son had insisted he have a phone after a fall but had given him a top of the range smart phone and the poor bloke couldn't work the thing. I went straight back into teacher mode and showed him the very basics, how to make a call, how to answer a call etc. I even set his son and daughter up on speed dial so if he fell again he could just press one button to get them.  He was ever so pleased and it passed the time nicely. I left feeling that I'd done my good deed for the day.

Then it was home for a quick lunch before heading out on the Tesco/Costco run. Having not shopped for two weeks and with two teenagers in the house, Svet was staying with us, my cupboards, fridge and freezer needed some serious stocking up.

Whilst shopping I wanted to pick up some coleslaw and salads for my lunches next week. As I perused the shelves I suddenly realised how expensive they were and, too be honest they are usually quite tasteless and soft. I like my salads crunchy and fresh tasting so decided to give making my own a go. I bought the ingredients and was pleased to find they cost a fraction of the ready made stuff. However I hit a problem, as with most PHer's cooking or preparing food can be a trial, and I knew that I'd probably give up on making my own as I'd be too tired or I'd cut too many fingers chopping everything.

As I mulled over what to do with all the stuff I'd bough a solution presented itself. I saw a small multi chopper and thought why not. I can get everything chopped, sliced, diced and grated in double quick time and without risk to any fingers. So call me foolish, call me impulsive but I bought it there and then. I'm now itching to use the thing but if I want a crunchy salad for lunch on Monday, the earliest I can prepared it is Sunday evening. Though I'm planning a trial run this afternoon so I can have salad with my lunch.

Cupboards re-stocked and new machine in the dishwasher I sank gratefully onto the settee for the rest of the evening while indulging in a cheecky little glass of Aspall's Suffolk Cyder. I adore the stuff and it was on special offer so treated myself.

After a deep long sleep I treated myself to a soak in the bath with a jasmine bath bomb and am now catching up with all my correspondence for the last two weeks. This afternoon I've lined up two of my favourite films. Bram Stokers Dracula and Some Like It Hot. A bit of light and shade there, a nice little balance.

I've also been going through the photo's I took last weekend. Some are good, some are brilliant and some are crap but hey, I had a good time taking them so every one is precious. I've included a few on here. They are from the Abergwesyn Pass, one of my favourite routes home. It is not a road for the faint hearted and in the wet on freshly gritted roads it is even trickier but well worth it. Unfortunately it was tipping down when we drove through it but the views were still spectacular, on a sunny day they are breath taking. All these pictures and more can be seen on my Flickr photo site. Link is in the righ hand column of this blog.

In the news, well not a lot of interest really. I was intrigued by reports coming out of Italy that they think they have found the model for the Mona Lisa. Really? How can they possible tell after all this time? OK, I know they managed to ID Richard III but he did have a very pronounced physical deformity to go on and they knew roughly where to look. With the Mona Lisa I think it will be mostly guess work but I'm still intrigued to see what they come up with.

Right being head butted by the cat. Either he's hungry or he's bought a present. I'd better go and check. More tomorrow.

Fantasy, Fiction and Facts

There's been a bit of an upset with organ donation recently and the reason is an ill advised episode of Holby City shown on 30th July.

I haven't mentioned it before for several reasons. I wasn't really sure how I felt about it. I had my mind on so many other things, and off course I went away that weekend. So now that things have calmed down I decided to give my take on the programme and, hopefully, dispel some of the myths surrounding transplant.

Now let me stay from the start I love Holby, and Casualty for that matter, and one duff episode is not going to stop me watching it. However I watch it fully aware that it is not real, things do not happen as quickly or dramatically or as easily as it does in Holby. One episode comes to mind when they showed a woman, supposedly hours after her heart transplant, sitting up in bed drinking tea, holding a perfectly lucid conversation without at tube or wire or machine anywhere in sight.  It made me laugh at the ridiculousness of it but I wasn't offended. I know it's not real.

However there are people in this world who think everything they see on TV or read in the papers is God's honest truth. And this is where the problems with inaccurate drama lie. Now Holby has experts who advise on story lines, however advise is all they can do. They cannot force the writers to portray that advice accurately and indeed I believe most of the reality surrounding transplant is too boring and not dramatic enough for a prime time soap. After all don't we have documentaries to give people the truth, nothing wrong in adding a little spice to the mix. Which again is perfectly true until it starts to hurt people.

The episode showed a young women waiting for a transplant and by chance an exact match is involved in a road accident who just happens to be an organ donor. The donor's mum is desperate to carry out her daughter's wishes but can't bring herself to do it so she asks to see the recipient before making up her mind. There is resistance form the staff, quite rightly so, but eventually she is allow to meet the mother of the recipient. Then she is seen bursting into the theatre where her daughter is about to have her heart removed and says the operation must stop. The surgeon then lies by saying the operation was past the point of no return. The mum is then seen watching the operation on the recipient. Irresponsible is one word I would call this episode, I have called it many other names over the course of the week, most not printable here.

Unfortunately many have believed what they have seen and are pulling their names off the donor list. I'm sure that was not the intention of the writers or production staff but sometimes you really do have to aim your target very, very low. They assumed everyone watching takes what they see with a bit of salt, they were badly mistaken.

So that is the fantasy and fiction, what are the facts?

Fact 1. A donor and recipient are rarely in the same hospital. The reason being that most transplant hospitals are specialist hospitals which do not have accident and emergency departments. Most of their patients are referred there from other hospitals not wheeled in on a trolley covered in grit, tar and petrol.

Fact 2. Medical teams looking after the donor and the recipient are kept completely separate at all times. They are frequently from different hospitals in different counties or even countries. They are connected via a transplant coordinator who has no association with either team and is usually completely independent and part of the national transplant registry.

Fact 3. Donor families have the perfect right, at the moment anyway, to withdraw consent at anytime.

Fact 4. Donor and recipient families are kept apart and contact is usually only made via writing and then anonymously. This is usually in the form of a letter of thanks from the recipient to the donor family once they have recovered.

Fact 5. You cannot just run into an operating theatre in any hospital. Theatres, ICU's and CCU's are all guarded by password locks and usually a fearsome receptionist. Honestly people you'd have more chance of getting into Fort Knox than getting past that woman unnoticed.

Fact 6. Any surgeon who went ahead with any operation without consent is going to loose their job at best and probably will go to jail. One thing is for certain, they'd never work as a doctor again. The doctor's I know would never risk their careers in this way, they mean too much to them.

So there you have it, of course stating the facts is not going to convince everyone but if only one person reads this and changes their minds then I'll be happy.

I don't feel it is appropriate to continue my holiday report here so will leave it for another day when I don't have much to say, like that's ever going to happen.

In other news it looks as though Edinburgh zoo has a pregnant Panda. How exciting, I wonder whether it will get as much coverage as the royal baby did. It should being a much rarer birth.

Aberystwyth in August, Part Two

We started our first full day in Aber by going up to the Nant y Moch dam or as it now known the Hydroelectric system ( it still looks like a dam to me). It was a stunning day and Peter and I spent a wonderful couple of hours taking pictures, driving around the reservoir on the narrow roads or just sitting and looking.

We then went into town and, although there were more people than there were on Friday afternoon, we found the place quite empty. There was a farmers market on and I'm a sucker for those sort of things so we went up to the castle to have a look. It was quite disappointing to find it consisted of two stalls, one selling sweets and the other a few plants and some jars of home made chutney and jam. I bought a couple of jars of chutney and made the fatal mistake of mentioning the weather. NEVER, EVER mention the weather to a Welsh farmer, you are just asking for trouble, and I got it.

'Hot! Hot! You call this hot! You should have been with me in Egypt!'

Twenty minutes later and still reeling from a vivid description of heat stroke, complete with re-enactment of a seizure, yes he did actually start shaking, we managed to get away, vowing that next time we'll keep any conversation strictly on the chutney. Once I tried the chutney though I decided it was twenty minutes well spent as it was absolutely scrummy.

We decided to try out a new pub/restaurant called The Starling Cloud for lunch on the recommendation of my mother. We sat outside in the fresh air and tucked in to the most wonderful food. I even indulged in a naughty glass of cider.

The afternoon was spent on the prom watching kids searching for crabs in the rock pools or trying to fly kites and I remembered many a happy day doing exactly the same thing. I was itching to go for a paddle but knew I'd never make it down to the sea's edge and back so had to be content with remembering what it was like to stroll in the surf. Maybe next year. Ice cream was eaten. I couldn't decide between mint choc chip or rum and raisin so had both, which was an interesting combination.

A quick trip back to mum's to do my meds and have yet more tea and cake and then we took mum out for a meal. we wanted to go back to the Starling as we'd liked it so much but it was packed out so we went to Llety Parc instead which used to be the place to go but has let it standards drop a bit. I wanted something light so plumped for a quiche with salad. It was OK but I must say I've never had a salad quite like it. On the plate was half a lettuce, most of a sliced cucumber and two large tomatoes. If it had stopped there it would have been great but it didn't. In addition there was a huge dollop of coleslaw and another of spiced couscous. Now comes the weird bit. On top of all that were two slices of pineapple and four strawberries, the whole pile was topped off with a hard boiled egg. I can't say it was all that nice and Peter hated his lasagne which was very dry. Not exactly a success though mum seemed to enjoy her meal.

We fell in to bed exhausted and slept really well, which is just as well as Sunday would bring a very long, very wet and very frustrating drive home.

For Anne

I did not know you
Our lives never touched
'Til the day they gathered
To bid you farewell
And they painted your picture
And as I looked around
I felt I saw you
In the words and the sound

Brian May

I heard this song on the day I heard that Anne had passed away. 

I attended her funeral today and heard it again on the way home. Although not entirely accurate as I did, briefly, know Anne, it is a beautiful song and I thought appropriate for a such a beautiful, brave lady.

For you Anne. I will always think of you when I hear it.

For those who do not know it here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThOgPxAnZSE

Aberystwyth In August, Part One.

Gosh I'm so happy I've finished my three days in work. I was so tired after my trip to Wales but it was much more than worth it. So how did the trip go?

We set out around nine and decided to maximise our time in Aberystwyth by taking the motorways, and hopefully getting there fast, so it was M1, M6 and then M54. We then swapped to the A483, A70 and A44 where everything slowed to a crawl. We didn't see a caravan until we hit the Welcome To Wales sign and then there were millions of them.

As it was approaching midday and we were getting hungry we decided to cut our losses and stopped at a charming country pub for lunch. For the life of me though I cannot remember the name of the blasted place. Anyway we went in expecting the usual pub fare but were faced with what was essentially a Chinese restaurant. Sweet and sour chicken, egg fried rice, beef curry and bean sprouts were gratefully received and then devoured as though we hadn't eaten for weeks. Well fed and much more relaxed we completed out journey with the windows wound down so we could breathe in the fresh air.

We arrived at two and my mum almost burst into tears when she saw me. I had warned her about my weight loss but it clearly was worse than she thought. Having calmed her down and with our bags settled upstairs we were treated to tea and cake while having a good natter.

Then we were off down town for a quick look around to see what had changed since my last visit. I was dismayed to see so many shops closed down and astonished that at the height of the holiday season there were so few people about. Aberystwyth used to heave with tourists throughout the summer but not now it seems. Thinking it was probably because it was getting late in the afternoon and with the shops all around us shutting up, we returned to mum's and more cake and tea.

After another good gossip and with my drugs done we headed into town again for two of my favourite things. A stroll along the prom at sunset, well Peter strolled and I pottered along on my trike, not quite the same but it will do until I can get back on my feet. Once the sun had set we grabbed two bags of chips covered in curry sauce and two cans of Vimto from the nearest chippy, Aberystwyth has quite a few of these, and settled on a bench on the prom to talk and listen to the sea.

Amazingly I polished off everything and even ran my finger around the inside of the plastic box to get the last of the curry sauce. Don't ask me why this little ritual is so special, it just is. Then it was back to mum's to watch the news and have an early night. We slept like babies and woke around seven to the sound of seagull calling. Fan-bloody-tastic!!

Enjoy the pictures, I will continue this story on Friday. Right now I have to get myself ready for a very sad day. I will be attending Anne's funeral tomorrow along with several other from the PH forums. It's going to be a very tough day.

Home

This is just a very quick blog to say that I'm home from Aberystwyth safe and sound.

Although it was little more than a flying visit we had a wonderful time and were very lucky with the weather. I acted like a proper tourist taking millions of photos, most of which will find their way onto this blog over the coming weeks, eating ice cream and marvelling at the beauty of the sea. I actually got a little sun burnt, a first for Aber I must say.

I ate too much, I definitely drank too much and I admit to over doing it a little bit but I was having such a good time I didn't want to miss out on anything.

The trip home was a bit of a downer, not only because I was leaving Aberystwyth and my mother but because it absolutely piddled down all the way and I couldn't take as many pictures of the mountain pass as I'd planned. I took a few but they were not half as beautiful or spectacular as they would have been in sunshine.

So I will leave you with a taster and will post a fuller blog on Wednesday. I'm shattered so need a sleep, that's what having fun does to you.

Sleepless In Harlington

My goodness was it hot last night.

I just could not settle and my plight was made even worse by Tarmac who just wanted to be cuddled and insisted on lying on top of me all the time. Damn cat! I finally dropped off, I think, at around three and must have been in a really deep sleep when my phone went off. My first thought was 'not now, I've got too much to do' but once my brain de-fogged I realised it was a text, not a call so bleary eyed read it wondering what was so important that it couldn't wait until them morning. The time stamp said 3.38 and I had a slight panic remembering both my boys were working nights. The text was from Andrew and said. 'please text me at 1 to make sure I wake up.' Livid doesn't cover it. I'd nearly had a heart attack and my sleep ruined for that! I will be having words to remind him that just because he's awake doesn't mean everyone else is.

Me? Sit on people uninvited? I think not!

I was up at six, which I handled brilliantly this being my usual 'get up' time when I'm working, and after a quick shower I was on the motorway hot footing it to the airport to pick up Svet. Surprisingly this little task went without a hitch and we were back home well before eight. Shattered from the flight, she couldn't sleep because of a combination of heat and crying babies, Svet took herself off to bed for a few hours and I made a few phone calls. First was to the Warfarin clinic, which I'm supposed to be attending tomorrow to change my appointment. The second was to Papworth to let them know that I won't be at home for a couple of nights. Peter and I have long joked that I'll get the call the minute we arrive in Aberystwyth. So fingers crossed that my usual luck will hold out and everything will happen to cause the maximum disruption at the most inconvenient time.

This afternoon we are shooting down to Hatfield so Svet can spend a few hours with Andrew while Peter and I do some shopping and then it is back home for quite evening in front of the TV before an early turn in for all of us.

Tomorrow morning it will be a case of waiting until Andrew arrives home from his night shift and then we're off to Aber leaving Andrew and Svet in charge of house and cats. So the blogs over the next few days are going to be a bit erratic. It will depend entirely on two things. One, will I be able to find Wifi, my mum is not connected being a bit of a technophobe and  two, will I get any peace to write anything. Both are doubtful so the next blog will probably be on Sunday, if I get back early enough or failing that Wednesday. Take care.