Lurking Dangers

Another wonderful day at the community orchard

It was the Orchard Blossom Celebration this last Saturday and as always, I have a tinge of excitement tinged with nerves that these events will all go well. The weather is the biggest variable and with a twenty percent chance of rain, I was not expecting the lovely weather we had. We also had new gazebos which I think helped the flow of people through the length of the orchard. All went well. Everyone was convivial and  I think I forgot that I had a healing foot and that was where the trouble lurked. Towards the end I was almost wanting someone to chop  my sore heal off. 

Sammi turned up from Brighton and helped with the heavy bits at the orchard event and then stayed at Danielle's to help her out and have some family time at her place. Danielle set up stall to sell some of my resin art. Barry played music so it was a family affair as well as a gathering of my friends, Diane and Jeremy, Nataliia, Nicolas and baby Philip. Despite the pain, I have happy memoires. 

I got home after what seemed like a very long day, and managed to get to the pub for a meal with Diane and Jeremy so I couldn't have been that bad. Diane and I limped and lurched our way along while Jeremy mocked our limitations in mobility - Thanks Jeremy! I thought it was funny. Today is another day as they say and I am almost back to moving smoothly again. 

Danger lurks in lots of places. This is a shout to Naser's bravery or perhaps to his poor short-term memory. Earlier this week he cycled over to me after he had had a hair cut. I told him the barber had missed a bit. He laughed. He thought it was a tease but the barber really had missed a big chunk on top of his head. I offered to cut it!!! Naser accepted and this is where the bravery bit comes in... during lockdown, I cut Naser's hair and he cut mine. It was what we all did back then. We did the hairdressing bit in the garden and this is where I accidentally made a hole in the back of his head with the shaver. It was about the size of a 10p piece and, to be honest, he would never have noticed if I hadn't giggled. In the garden there were no mirrors. I could have got away with it! Regardless of this moment of terror back in 2020, he let me chop the bit the barber missed. No giggles. This time he watched me in the mirror. I hope all is forgiven if not forgotten for the last time!  

Nataliia and Nicolas came to visit me at home this week as well. I have seen them twice this week which is nice Philip is now a fully-fledged whirlwind and my home is not childproof. Everything has to be put up high. I have plants on the floor and glass bottles stored under the butcher's block. I think all children have an innate sense of what is dangerous and therefore interesting. Life is tough when you are under two and things mysteriously disappear just when you think you can play with them! I have a box full of children's toys but these aren't half as interesting as those forbidden fruits. 

This week it must be noted that JD Vance did to the Pope, what Liz Truss did to the Queen. Danger lurks almost everywhere!

Happy Easter!

 

Another significant date in the Christian calendar has come round. Typically, the weather has slipped into the miserable range of slightly cold and dampish for much of the time. There has been a bit of holiday spirit with the occasional glimpse of sun. In my mind Bank Holidays should be balmy so everyone gets out of their houses and smiles at each other. Once again this has not proved to be the case for most of the weekend. However, the towpath was heaving of Sunday afternoon. As one person commented. It was not the weather but the fact that the shops were closed that brought the walkers out in their droves.

Regardless, I have had a busy time, especially as Binny and Ana came for the day on Good Friday. As with many things in my life, things don't always run smoothly. Danielle, the girls and I have spent quite a lot of the week together and over that time, Danielle had complained about not feeling too good. At 2:30 a.m. on Friday morning she phoned me to tell me how ill she really was. She later told me she did this because she needed her Mum. I told her I needed my sleep!

I dropped her off at the Urgent Care Unit in the morning as she had mastitis. The girls wanted to stay with her. I knew that Ezra-Mae was worried about her Mum. Then I drove back home and waited for the call to go back. I picked her up and went to Central Milton Keynes Boots to pick up the prescription. I resented paying premium parking for a whole hour but then I needed it as the queue was so long it took 30 minutes just to drop the prescription off. I wasn't prepared for lots of walking as I was wearing flat shoes because I am trying to build my ankle strength by using barefoot shoes but I really couldn't walk so I bought padded flip flops while I was waiting just so I could get back to the car comfortably. 

So, after this expensive interlude, I got everyone back to my place so I could cook lunch with Ezra-Mae's help. It all came together - almost. Danielle slept in the spare bedroom, We had lunch without her. Ezra-Mae was so excited about seeing people who she could not even remember seeing before. She sat on the balcony to look out for the car. She loved having Ana to entertain her. As with every meal I make Ezra-Mae, she loves to have my homemade pickles. I call her Pickle because she eats so much of the stuff.

The whole day was a bit hectic. I forgot to take photos so all I have are the ones that Binny took - thank you Binny. I also had a brief introduction to Mah Jong. I think I could easily take to this game. I love anything "gamesy" and especially competitive, Canasta is the family go-to game but as it takes so long, Danielle and I have been playing dominoes which is really quick. Ezra-Mae and I play Strip Jack Naked which is good for picture recognition, counting and learning to lose to Nana! 

Pictorial evidence, thanks to Binny

Saturday was another day... I decided that I would sort out my blocked kitchen sink. I had already put Draino down to clear the blockage but it hadn't helped get the water moving, I took the bull by the horns and undid the U bend, It wasn't blocked. So all I had to do was put it back together. Easy! Well it seemed to be and then I poured water down the sink and one of the connections leaked. I undid the everything, put it all together and it leaked. Argh.... Richard's brother, Jim and Ezra-Mae came to the rescue. Their mere presence meant the leak stopped. I put some gunge round the joint and didn't pour anything down the sink until the morning just in case. So far, so good. 

I will put plumbing on my CV. Until the next time, I will look into Mah Jong on Google. I've got to keep those brain cells ticking over. I cannot rely on my new career as a plumber just yet.

Thankfully Danielle is now on the mend. Happy Easter.

Nothing to Report

 As another week slips by, there is nothing to report that is out of the ordinary. I amaze myself how my days disappear, especially in the glorious sunny weather that we have been experiencing this week. Everything moves at a slower pace when the sun is out. 

I am now up to my old swimming routine and have signed up for the Thames Challenge at my local pool once more. This week I managed over 400 lengths and I have started to use my legs as well as my arms. Next week, I am going to get back on my bike again. I am still waddling and not fully walking and uneven ground still poses a few problems. My biggest joy is being able to carry a cup of coffee up and down stairs. This is progress. 

In the garden, I have sown lots of seeds. They are already growing. This year I have timed the weather well. So far, so good. Last year I got my seeds growing and then the weather turned bad and they died. All is looking much better this time round. I have stopped falling over plant pots as well, so the garden looks less messy too. It is just those pesky weeds I need to get rid of. If only I could find the time! 

Behind bars! If only

Danielle has started sorting out baby things she no longer needs. I went over to help... mostly to keep Mattaya out of trouble. I cannot believe how much stuff she has acquired. When my girls were young, we were living on a small island. It was summer all year round and life revolved around the beach. I can't remember having much at all. I remember making a house out of a cardboard box and various other temporary toys. Maybe, even in the 80s we consumed less. Danielle has a long way to go to get herself sorted - at least she she made a good start. 

Wolverton Street Market

So with the weather turning to "normal" English misery, my week came to an end. Wolverton Street market started off in sunshine. Naser and I had a cup of coffee in the warmth of a sunny Sunday and then it rained... I helped out at the tennis club sprucing it up in the afternoon and it rained some more. At the beginning of the week, I told my neighbour I was going to be doing some tidying up at the club on Sunday and I predicted rain.... maybe I am just a bit psychic, or perhaps it is just that I am a pessimist. 

Working hard at the tennis club

April Fool

For once I have been scouring FB. This is not my normal habit. As a rule I look at the first three posts that pop up and then close the app. I became hooked after seeing an April Fool post and then I started looking for others. I was duly rewarded. There have been so many wonderful April Fool jokes - all well thought out and receiving serious comments from those who were caught out. The comments were as funny as the posts themselves. It is great to see people putting in the effort to keep the tradition going. 

I didn't play any tricks this year. I used to prepare my tricks weeks ahead of time. There was the rubber cockroach  that looked quite realistic.- that was a joke that ran and ran. Probably I don't do silly things because I am growing up at last.

On a bigger scale, America serves a daily diet of humour - except it is really ridiculous and sadly it affects all our lives. It is not actually funny. How can so many Americans have chosen such a stupid president? In less than eighty days he has destroyed institutions, made enemies of friends and wilfully misunderstood world affairs. Dickhead doesn't cover the extent of his stupidity. Worse still, our politicians here in the UK fawn over his every move. It is difficult not to laugh even though it is scary that a collective group of extremely rich, silly men have the power to bully the rest of the world. 

At least Trump has shown himself to be a failure. He said he would end the Ukraine war on Day One of his presidency. He has failed spectacularly. Nor has he sorted out Gaza - neither will Trump Tower M.E. style grow out of the rubble which is a blessing to us all. This world needs more normal - boring but everyday normal. 

Sophie, John and Naser in the April sunshine

Nataliia and Philip

Ita on the balcony in an arty shot

Finally, amidst visits from friends  - something I always appreciate, I have fended of an aggressive publisher which I didn't appreciate. I won't name the company but I give this man full marks for determination. Danielle was with me when the last sales push blasted me. There is no polite way to say this. He wouldn't take "no" for an answer. As Sophie is on the same path to publishing, I have shared my ups and downs of navigating this minefield. I have come to see marketing and distribution key to my needs so I'll start here. Did you know I am publishing a book? Oh... and it will be available in a bookshop near you! This is not an April Fool.

Like Mr Magnolia

Mr Magnolia has only one boot – so do I now. I went down to Kent this week to have my highly decorated cast cut off. When my leg was at last exposed after seven weeks of imprisonment in plaster of paris it looked as if it belonged to a lizard. I was fitted with a magnificent boot that has velcro clamps on each side to keep my ankle in a fixed position and then set off for home. I am new to this boot and frustrated at how easily the velcro sticks to all the wrong bits. Getting it on is not easy as I grapple with bits that stick to parts of the boot they shouldn’t and as the boot is new, the velcro still has a locktight clench. It is a battle of mammoth proportions I endure every time I want to walk out of the door. The good news is I do not need to wear this in the shower or around the home but I still need one crutch to help me get around outside. Some ups and some downs to get over. At least I am at the next stage and on the mend.

I saw the state of my leg for the first time in seven weeks when the cast was removed. As soon as I got in from the hospital, I jumped in the shower to wash off the dead skin from where my cast was. I scrubbed and then applied body lotion. So far, so good. Then I woke up this morning to a snowstorm of dead skin in the bed. I went through the same process of cleaning off the skin. Then I changed the bedding. I went swimming. I took my boot off at the pool and another snowstorm of skin fell out all over the floor in the foyer. Argh and oh, how embarrassing.

At least the swim should have got rid of the excess. It didn’t. I washed it off in the shower, dried myself and still more skin rubbed off. At this rate, I’ll have lost about two inches of leg with all that I am shedding. This really is not nice. Now that I can see my scar. I have one the shape of an “L” on my right heel. I feel this could lead to future confusion, especially as I have two left feet.

For seven weeks I have been wearing odd socks – a big fluffy one over the cast and a normal one on the left foot. Now I can wear two the same. For all my life I have paired socks up before I put them away. There was no point doing this while I had the cast on so now I have the new challenge of matching up pairs once more. What a faff. I’m convinced the black hole that swallows socks has been busy in my home of late.

I have also realised I need different trousers. Before, they had to be baggy enough to go over the cast. Now they can be tight to my skin to go inside the boot. Dealing with a bad leg is all too much to think about. Perhaps I’d be happier if I just spent my days in a dressing gown. And just like Mr. Magnolia I could get a rusty of trumpet to annoy the neighbours.

Mothers' Day was pretty special... memorable for a very chocolately ice cream at Bicester Village. This was the first ever ice cream that Mattaya had tasted. Now she is totally addicted. Later on she saw two women eating a cone and reached out to them drooling. Definitely addicted!

The first ever ice cream.  The slippery slope to decadence.

The book is all but finished. I promised myself an end of March deadline and I have done it. Just like when I walked out of my final exam of my masters, I feel bereft. When you have engaged with something with intensity it leaves a hole when it is done... Just editing now...

 

This will be the last time

Decorated by Ezra-Mae

This is the last week my right leg will be in a full cast. Next week I move to a boot and hopefully then I'll be able to start swimming once more. The last seven weeks have been quite a journey mentally and on many occasions I have had to remind myself that I have made progress even though I am limited because my ankle is in a fixed position. I can waddle around the house without a crutch. I can shower standing up and I can take a cup of coffee downstairs very slowly. Small steps indeed.

Purely from frustration, I considered trying my bike out but couldn't work out how to take the crutches with me. I have driven though. I take the boot off and use my toes on the pedal. While I still can't do much in the garden, I have managed to stay clear of plant pots so I can report less carnage in my wake. 

Surviving plants

I even took myself off shopping for groceries. All went well until I needed to push the trolley to the car. It was easy enough to get around the supermarket wheeling over smooth floor but the carpark was a very different kettle of fish. The trolley would not steer straight. I was exhausted trying to move forward with one hand steering and the other gripping a crutch. Once again the sun shone down on me and a lady offered to push my trolley to the car. Everyone is so nice when you need a bit of help. The whole world deserves a very big thank you!

I have had company again this week. It is always lovely to have people around. Diane and Jeremy popped over impromptu. I am in competition with Diane on the bad leg front. I think she is still ahead of me and could outpace me in a race! I introduced her to Danielle's domino game that we are teaching Ezra-Mae. Diane beat me at that too. No justice! We had a lovely takeaway curry - Thank you! - and watched Conclave - Brilliant. 

On a more serious note, I am still writing Naser's story. It dominates my thinking. I am learning a lot about me.  I think I have discovered my writing process. I liken it to planting a garden. You start with an empty plot and plant a few seeds here and there. As they grow, you move them around and then notice gaps where much larger plants fit. Then comes the pruning! At this late stage I am still adding a few seeds. One day it will bloom. 

Danielle asked me to go along with her to a psychic fair on Sunday. In my mind, I thought there would be people peddling crystals and beautifully crafted tarot cards. How wrong could I have been. The room had about eight tables with people offering readings. I am quite cynical about things like this but signed up to have a reading with Ricky. We got off to a slow start as he had mislaid his phone so inwardly I wondered how psychic he really was if he didn't know where he last had it. Joking aside, I asked the cards whether I would be a successful author. I was very guarded in my responses to any questions he asked as I did not want to lead him to know what I was writing about. Weirdly he told me both the story and the background to it. Definitely a doo-be-doo-be-doo moment.  

In many ways I keep myself busy. Around the same time that I have got moving, Mattaya has also got mobile. She has started crawling and pulling herself up on the furniture. Once more my house has become a minefield of dangers for inquisitive little ones. I need to get moving to keep her safe. This has come at a time when Ezra-Mae is getting very sensible despite having a Nana like me as a role model. 

Rejection

Happy about Spring!

In a week that begins to look like lots of other weeks in my life, I had one really busy day at the London Book Fair. My aim was to dip my one good toe in the water to see if I could find a publisher for my book. I set off from my little village for the train station on my crutches knowing that it would be a long day hobbling. I pre-planned my route round Olympia to reduce the amount of travel and I thought I had the ideal bag for getting to things quickly while holding two crutches – I don’t think there is an easy-access bag designed for those who wield crutches. Have I spotted a gap in the market?

Each time I dug down for something from my rucksack, my crutches inevitably fell on the ground and someone would rush over to help me. Actually, I am quite adept at squatting on my one good leg and picking stuff up from the floor. Other things are much more difficult. Waiting for lifts instead of popping up stairs is much harder for me to deal with. I now realise that I am the sort of person I hate to be behind in a crowded place. More patience is needed for this.

The fair itself was quite overwhelming. The hall was chokka with literary types. Lots of people on their badges announced themselves as authors – something I aspire to. I just put myself down as being a writer and editor. Nothing too grand! My contact at the fair was really helpful and again this helped by directing me to the best people to have a conversation with. All those I spoke to were really positive about my book and so far I have one rejection. This rejection was so complimentary and was written so nicely I wanted to jump up and down on my bed except that would have hurt my leg. I just bounced a bit and smiled a lot.

The journey home was not without incident. My train was cancelled. Hanging around on the station, I met a magazine owner who gave me his details – another positive link there – and a woman who whose initials are LB and she lives in LB! For once, hanging around waiting wasn’t a bad experience despite the nip in the air. I got to Wolverton Station and seeing the steep stairs to the bridge over the railway line made want to hunker down on a bench and wait til I had regained some energy. This is where I think the world smiles on us. One of the passengers took one of my crutches and walked slowly up and over the bridge with me. In my temporary state of invalidity, so many people rush to help. Thank you…

Meanwhile, back on the home front, I have seen lots of my grand daughters again this week. At my place, I accidentally let Mattaya bump her head on the coffee table. She loves standing holding on to fingers, unfortunately she made a drunken lurch forward while holding on to me. Whoops… This is probably the initiation she needed to my accident-prone life. Ezra-Mae still remembers the post box incident. I think this serves as a warning to the dangers of being with Nana! Just wait til I am back on two legs.