Filed under: diary,Fox News — Trefor Davies @ 11:32 am
HipHop2 +9 and counting. Another day another something or other. What really is there to report? The boys are playing golf today. Not me obvs. Another autumnal day out there. The apple trees in the garden are pretty much stripped of leaves, a few hardy stalwarts hanging on in there. Out there. Up there. Tomatoes continue to ripen in the greenhouse. THG picked the remaining greenuns and left them on a shelf and they have slowly been turning red. Nature’s gift that keeps on giving. A single pink rose provides colour around the arch near the apple tree and raised beds.
Last night’s visitors amounted to a/the cat at 22:16, 00:36 and 00:41 and fox at 03:13 and 06:14. The BIG NEWS is we had a hedgehog at the lake at 00:36. By 06:14 it was raining.
The arrival of the hedgehog on the scene is very exciting. Having downloaded the lake cam media from the kitchen window the first thing I did after getting dressed was to hot foot/crutch it to the lake to make sure there was no hedgehog in the water. If a hog did enter the water it has a couple of exit points including the ramp at the entrance and the jetty at the far end, near where Brian fishes. No hedgehog there to worry about. Wondering whether it is the same little guy I rescued from the hole in the patio near the conservatory. Quite likely.
Anyway this is good progress and, I’d like to think, a dividend of the rewilding that has been going on in front of the shed. Earlier I’d checked the cctv as I do only to see a spider building its web in front of one of the cameras. You can see it in timelapse. If I get around to it I’ll put together a short vid of the process. I’ll also go around the cameras brushing off these webs. They are only visible at night but I don’t want them there.
Flurry of phone calls this morning. Firstly an expensive, ten grand, cockup by the hospital where I had the hip done. They’ve invoiced the healthcare company with the wrong treatment descriptions and dates which Vitality has not recognised as a preauthorised activity. Sigh. It is all sortable. Just a pain that I have to do it.
Then I called the Bromhead hospital (now known as The Lincoln but if yer from around ere it’s the Bromhead) as they had sent me an email saying how excited they were about me coming in to see a physio on Friday, i.e. tomorrow. I thought I was going the following Friday. Turns out the physio from The Park Hospital had called the physio from the Bromhead and arranged it. Nobody told me! So now I’m seeing Clare who is the same physio I saw last time and not seeing Gabby Dunn who THG thinks is the sister of Harry Dunn and daughter of Pete and Caroline who we know. Harry was a good cricketer. Probably still is.
Now I’m on the phone to the dentist to book an appointment. Every thirty seconds I have to press 1 to continue to hold. Wtf is that all about. Just answer the effin phone. Given up. I’ll call back later. Called back and immediately got through. What’s more I got an appointment for next week! Unheard of. Not complaining.
Three red arrows just flew over in tight formation and then a minute later flew back the other way.
Bathroom scales are the new toaster. We need a new set of bathroom scales. Not sure why they are in the plural here. It isn’t as if we are adding weights to one side to balance out the item/person being weighed. Clinging to tradition. No problemo. Why are the scales the new toaster? Well it took me a long time to decide which toaster to buy and in the end I went with the one that had been my initial gut feel, the long slot Dualit.
So now our bathroom scales are officially kaput we need a new one/ones (?). The problem right now is I have no idea which ones to buy and no initial gut feel to run with. I’ve never looked at the genre. So I looked.
Yanow the problem? Omg there is so much complication in the bathroom scales market. They don’t just tell you how much you weigh anymore. Want to know your BMI? We got you covered. This is great because it is such a faff having to mentally work it out every time I step on some scales. We can also do you body fat percentage, body water percentage, muscle mass and bone mass. Want Bluetooth integration? Sure, we’ve got an app. I already have visions of meself turning into a honed athlete, thanks to the bathroom scales. I’ll have to choose which wearable I want to integrate. I gave my fitbit to our daughter Hannah so she can use it in the run up to the Seville half marathon in January. All sounds v complicated to me.
I think we want some bathroom scales that tell you how much you weigh, accurately. Our old, now non-functioning, ones which I believe may have been sourced from John Lewis, always showed you as being a little heavier than those at the doctors, even with clothes on (shorts and tshirt). On the basis that the doc must have a good set and they showed me being lighter than the ones at home I always went with their number although my visits to the surgery are not particularly frequent and I therefore have to be happy to wait for the news. Doesn’t really matter about the accuracy as long as they show you the right trajectory. Up, down or stay the same.
You will be kept posted on progress natch but if anyone has any suggestions regarding known good scales feel free to bung em across.
…
Today is HipHop2 +8. The significant milestones are +14, where the dressing and sutures are removed, +28 where I ditch one crutch and am allowed to put my full weight on the repaired leg, and +42 where I cast off the remaining crutch and run out into the street shouting “it’s a miracle, I can walk”. +42 also represents the time when my sleep will start to improve as up until then I have to stay on my back. Not good.
+42 is too far away to stay motivated so I have to focus on smaller steps. I am six days away from having the stitches out which, from my diary entry of the same stage the last time, was a big step forward in terms of comfort. Don’t think there is any soreness so hopefully this dressing removal should be a formality in the same way it was last time.
Went for a wander. More because it’s a nice autumnal day out and a bit of fresh air does you good. Don’t think I’m really at the long distance stage (100 yards plus each way) yet. Not comfortable enough for that and there is no rush. All in good time. Made it to the tree in front of next door’s drive and just past the pedestrian crossing. Pathetic really but I’m ok with it. For some reason it made me think I need a haircut. Should have gone before the hiphop really. It’ll wait. I wore my green tweed pea jacket again which is coming into its own. Had it made at North’s gentlemen’s outfitters in Belfast a few years ago.
I’ve done all my exercises for the day. May do them again a bit later. They aren’t particularly strenuous but I do feel improvement in the strength of the glutes. We have to remember that in giving me a new hip the surgeon sliced down the middle of my left glute (I assume) so that needs to heal. Didn’t really do any research on all this medical/technical stuff as I’m somewhat squeamish. No tendons severed which has to be good.
I’m a bit of a WW2 history fan. Band of Brothers and all that, although I think I’ve now done that series to death, so to speak. My point is this recovery process from HipHop2 feels like recovering from a war wound. Obviously it is completely different but some of the wounded troops would discharge themselves from hospital before the docs thought they were really ready in order to get back to their mates and the action. Just wondering in my own mind where they would have been in that recovery process compared with little old me and my hip. Funny what you think about innit.
Plenty of Reynard action last night. Separate visits at midnight and at quarter to one in the morning. First time I’ve seen him drink from the lake. Unless he was looking to see if there were any fish on offer. Brian will tell you that time of day is very quiet on the piscine front. Then a lone deer mosied by at seven minutes to two. I dread the day when they both arrive at the same time.
Dawn rose late over the lake this morning. We are moving headlong towards the shortest day where light comes at a premium. The mists cleared revealing an unchanged scene. Fishing gnome Brian sat in his usual spot quietly plying his trade. An occasional deer or fox wandered by. Leaves continued to blow across from the woods, settling on the water and eventually sinking to the lake bottom. A long way to travel.
The scene very rarely changes except for a seasonal palette that gradually blends spring and summer greens with russet and gold followed by dark, graphite sketches of tree limbs and trunks. A fish occasionally jumps out of the water catching one of the ever decreasing number of insects flitting across the surface.
As the sun rose a kingfisher was spotted diving from the bank
Filed under: diary,Fox News — Trefor Davies @ 9:32 am
Usual crap night’s sleep but during my wanderings around the BBC podcast world I came across some triumphal works designed to help me nod off. One was eight hours of the sound of rain. I listened to ten minutes of it. Was good but didn’t get me off to sleep. Then I was offered an hour long shipping forecast with the sound of waves in between the voice. Wow. It did the trick. I set the sleep timer to the end of the show just to make sure that nothing else came afterwards and have no idea how far into the hour I nodded off. The fun thing about that podcast was that the weather was terrible everywhere. There were even a few “rising to violent storm force elevens”. I think that was the term, violent. Might be wrong but you get the gist. I like the idea of stormy weather. Nature at its grandest, most powerful. A time humanity must cower in its safe places to avoid the worst.
This morning I don’t think I can find the exact same podcast. Maybe it’s a time of day thing. I’ll be looking out for it tonight. You must be able to favourite something like that.
Update. Found it using my laptop – better UI than the phone app. It’s called the Sleeping Forecast – Seascapes. It’s the one with the sound of waves. There are other episodes with curated calming music but those are not the podcasts I seek 🙂
This time one week ago I was still in bed in the Park Hospital. Earlier I’d had visits from Dr Brown the anaesthetist and Mr Manktelow the surgeon who drew a black arrow on my left thigh just to remind himself the difference between left and right. I had a surgical gown to change into but didn’t see the point of getting up, showered and dressed and then changing again into the gown. The knifing was scheduled for 12:04!
A week into the new hip there is progress but I’m still very much in healing mode.
Two visitors to the lake last night. Reynard the fox came at 02:05 and a solitary muntjac deer popped in earlier at 01:06. There must be two groups of deer because I either see a single as was the case this morning or a mother and youngun. Tis always the same fox I believe.
…
Must admit I’m a bit on the bored side this morning. I’ve moved operations into the shed as that gives me more scope for things to do. Blasting out some Beatles while I figure out what to do. If you are bored for long enough you get off your arse and do stuff but my arse ain’t particularly mobile at the mo. I do have to make a start on sorting my screw collection but that is what the dark winter months are for. I am irrationally excited about sorting out my screws. When he visited the workshop yesterday Ajax mentioned that he tears the screw size label off the box and sticks it in with the screws in the carrying case. I bought pre filled cases of screws. The lid of the carrying case of a couple of them does identify the contents but not which compartments contain specific screw types. Maybe it does. It won’t be checked until the project starts for real.
During my waking hours last night I clicked on a Berry Brothers & Rudd ad for Penfold’s Australian wine. I drink their wine so figured there was no harm in checking out what they had to offer. Came across a schoolboy error. “Page not found – We’re terribly sorry but we could not find that page.” Someone in their marketing team needs a bit more training on how to setup online ads. They spent good money on me clicking on that link. Wasted money. Not my problem. Just sayin’.
Decided to see what was on offer on Radio 4 in the wee small hours. At 00:45, just before the shipping forecast, which wasn’t quite ready to listen to again as it had just finished was Bells on Sunday. On this occasion it was three minutes playing the bells of the church of St Mary Easebourne, West Sussex. I assume that was a typo. I guess there could be an Easebourne dunno whether it is to the west or east of the other place. Wouldn’t have worked had it been Weasebourne. Anyway, it sounded to me like a Jumble of Bells. Then came the shipping forecast but without the “Sailing By” music beforehand which is a shame because I like that tune, Had to put up with the dirge that is God Save The King at the end of it.
Interesting how the shipping forecast has become a thing. An unpredicted spin off from the butterfly effect. Same applies to all weather related programming I guess.
05:22. I think I’m awake. This is mostly because I went to bed at 18:30 last night because THG was off out on the lash and was happier knowing I was safely tucked up for the night. I didn’t mind but I did wake up a lot in the night. None of it is good sleep. I say out on the lash but really she went to see Lindisfarne in concert at The Drill with her cousin Helen. Would have gone meself. Hey there will be another time, maybs. They are getting on. We first saw them in Croydon in 1986 when we first started “courting”. Gosh.
Last night’s fox action was at 22:09 btw. He seemed to be just using our garden for transit purposes and didn’t hang around for a sniff. Sfine.
0h eight fifty and I’m showered, dressed and ready for the day. Feasted on THGs very fine granola with Greek yo and hand picked wild berries (that was specifically for @marij s benefit).
In other news just booking a trip to the Isle of Man. We will not have been for a year, largely due to Hannah & George’s wedding consuming much of our thought bandwidth over the summer. I suspect we will remedy this for next year. Two or three visits a year is about right for IoM. If you weren’t aware I grew up there and our parents are buried on the hillside looking down on the thirteenth tee at Peel Golf Club. A fitting place to spend eternity. The twelfth hole just beyond the tee is the location of one of the few eagles of my youth. It was a 2 under par 2 on a par four. Three wood and pitching wedge. I remember it like yesterday.
When I pressed “book now” or “confirm booking” or whatever it was I got a message saying thanks a lot – we will now just check to see if the cottage really is available. Great that innit. Now we have to wait. This problem is caused when property owners use multiple sites to rent out their place. Not good enough really. We once booked an airbnb for a couple of nights near my sister Ann’s only to be told the week before that sorry they had double booked it and the other booking, which was for a week, got there first. That was a load of bollocks. I gave a v poor review which tbh was deserved. You couldn’t trust that owner whatever the truth of the matter. I think we had to scramble and book into a pub or hotel or somewhere. Can’t remember now.
Today is HipHop2 +6. I note that on HipHop1 +5 I walked past the pedestrian crossing to the tree in front of next door’s drive. Yesterday was the equivalent day for HipHop2 and I already made it to the bus stop which is a cricket pitch or so further. Today is not particularly nice out but I feel I should push on. I’ll keep you posted.
…
Turned right out of the drive this morning. Ring the changes eh? Walked a lot further than the bus stop equivalent. I’m guessing four cricket pitches, maybe even five. Remember I did five in total yesterday.
Stopped and turned around at number 136 which is still boarded over and in need of restoration. At least one of the front windows is open so goodness knows what wildlife is making its home there. Wore my green tweed pea jacket and a warm woollen beanie for the jaunt/shuffle. Since I’ve lost a bit of weight, that jacket is now a great fit. Quite loose even. Gratifying.
Shortly after I got home THG returned from shops and gym and is now making a brew. Good on her.
It has been reported that our bathroom scales are on the blink. I replaced the battery yesterday after the LED had been showing ERR. Today THG says it was suggesting she weighed 20 stone. Must have been on a 2x setting, at least. Anyway, ever loving me said I’d buy her a new one for Christmas. A good one. One that tells you what you want to hear. If it doesn’t exist I’ve just invented it 🙂
In other news there is something going on at the Walkers crisps factory in Lincoln that may concern you. One of my sources of distraction is the new tab function in chrome on the phone. It offers you links to lots of news items it thinks may be of interest. There are occasions when it does come up trumps but often the links are to crappy media sites who are more interested in clickbaiting than anything of real interest.
This morning’s clickbait was a Yahoo article about Walkers discontinuing one of its spicy crisp brands after 50 years. I clicked. I can report that ”the much-loved Smith’s Spicy Tomato Snaps are no more, after manufacturers decided to pull the plug on the Lincoln-made snack earlier this month.” The hyphens are Yahoo’s not mine. Probably AI.
Well this news left me in a very slight state of passing confusion. I’d never heard of Smith’s Spicy Tomato Snaps. They can’t have been that much loved. Also I wasn’t aware that the Smith’s brand, a staple of my childhood, was even still going. Maybe this is its last gasp. Crunch time for Smith’s. Am I left salt ‘n shaken about this news (if you know you know and you probably need to be over fifty)? Nope. Figured it was worth sharing though.
Yesterday afternoon I watched the rugby in the shed. Over the course of three hours I managed something like two bottles of beer. Felt quite squiffy. Very full. A glass of primitivo with some pasta finished me off and I retired upstairs at half time in the Liverpool game. I was content that they didn’t need me watching to finish the job. Put Aston Villa to the sword. The imps lost though. FA Cup away against lower division opposition. Went to penalties. Giant killers.
So this Sabbath morning I have a relaxing time planned. I shall mostly be sitting in my chair in the window of the snug. I might read something. Do some ritin. Family tree research. Maybe even chat to the kids, if they are awake. THG will be out doing her devotions. It is a lovely autumnal morning for a walk. Maybe, just maybe the pedestrian crossing beckons and who knows, perhaps the bus stop although history suggests that may be a step too far for a first sortie. Reality is that the outdoor walking began yesterday with three separate walks to the shed so I may be ready for the bus stop. Will the bus stop be ready for me 🙂
The memory foam cushion seems to be making a difference. No sore backside to report. Good stuff. Otherwise not really much to report.
…
In an effort to get up off my arse and do something I slipped on my deck shoes and went for a walk. Out through the front door, up to the entrance of the drive and left along the pavement towards the pedestrian crossing. Lots of leaves covering both pavement and grassy verge but people’s footsteps had cleared a path along the pavement which is the path I followed. Took me no time whatsoever to reach the pedestrian crossing although we have to remember my speed is “dead slow” shuffling as I do to keep 50% of my weight off the new hip. At the crossing a woman with a Tesco bag caught me up, pressed the button and crossed anyway as there were no cars in sight. A bit annoying if the next car along had to stop at the red light with the woman already over and away. Hey.
I steadily plodded on past the tree in front of next door’s drive and on to the bus stop whereupon I was overtaken by a woman with an orangey brown woolly hat, leggings covered with skulls and a bag slung over her shoulder who uttered a cheery hello as she blew past me. I of course cheerily replied, touched the bus stop with a crutch and turned for home. I was by this time a good three cricket pitches away from the house. It’ll do for the first adventure I thought. The hip was growing tired but as much as anything it is the tediously slow walking that stops me from going further at this stage.
Home now and back in my window seat, cheeks healthily aglow. THG reckons my recovery progress is faster this time around. She may be right.
I checked the lake cam but no fox news. No herds of deer either. Just squirrel. A cat visited the front drive in the wee small hours but that really holds no interest. Unless it was a tiger which it wasn’t.
I must pop down for a chat with Brian at some stage. Trouble is those kinds of conversations are best done from a chair on the deck. Brian isn’t one for moving from his fishing spot. His philosophy is if you have a good place to fish don’t give it up. Possession is nine tenths of the law. He has a point. He always seems to have a fish at the end of his line.
Sitting on the deck ain’t a thing right now. Partly because it ain’t sitting on the deck weather but also because the deck is slippery and the available seating is too low for me right now. When I watched the rugby in the shed yesterday I piled three coffee sack cushions onto the armchair to give me enough height off the ground. Ended up with legs dangling so it was bit higher than the physio actually specified but better too high than too low and me not being able to get up. Got another physio session a week on Friday.
I’m quite looking forward to spring and summer in front of the lake. One of life’s luxuries. A remote log cabin or shed with great vistas from the deck. The shed is pretty much self contained with a fridge for lemonades. If anyone wants to swing by and pay a visit they are very welcome. Check first as it would be a shame to make that journey only to find that I’ve gone off hunting for the day, or to watch the cricket.
Yay it’s a Saturday. Yay. Actually it’s 04:35 on a Saturday. Hmm. Ah well. What is time anyway? Picked up my device in bed to do stuff and realised I look at very few sites nowadays. FB, BBC and Guardian. The beeb is mostly for the sport.
For something to do I just removed a few apps from my homescreen. Don’t need the NHS covid travel pass and only use eurostar once or twice a year. Doesn’t warrant giving it space on the front page. The Gett taxi app very rarely gets used. At some stage I should go through all my apps and uninstall those I never use. Trouble is there are a few pub apps in there for ordering to table that can be handy. Uninstalling them might mean having to reinstall at some point. Not a biggie I suppose especially if I’ve not been in for a year or two as will mostly be the case.
Now listening to the world service. If this was during the day I wouldn’t listen to this stuff. Content for content’s sake. “some people really love coriander”. Just heard that line. I’ll turn it off.
Picked up the fox on the external greenhouse cam at 5:23am. Just as I was looking at the app. Quite cool to see him live. The lake cam footage will have to wait. That’s a less sophisticated system. Lake cam footage now available.
Thought for the day was all about light. Started with seasonal light disorder and then deteriorated into biblical quotes. Twas only then I realised it was thought for the day. All about bringing light into people’s lives. Ok. My device, which was playing the Today Programme on Radio 4 was in the pocket of my dressing gown and, walking along with my crutches, it was inconvenient to reach for the phone and turn it off. I don’t listen to thought for the day. It is usually pretty dull monotone delivery stuff. Prayer for the cay can be not too bad but that is usually on before we have the wireless switched on. Had to endure it to the end on this occasion but have now switched off the stream. I have the quiet, calm company of THG to enjoy.
As I was lying in bed, creaking it occurred to me that in February of this year I went through the hip replacement process on the right leg and spent a lot of time writing about it, largely out of there being not much else for me to do. So now it is possible to look back on this same stage of the recovery and see how I was getting on then. The day of the op was 11th Feb cf 28th October this time. If the op was Day 0 then we are at Day 4 now which would have been 15th Feb for op1. I’ve left a link in the comments section if you are interested in comparing the two experiences. Seems to be the thing to do, apaz.
My posts from February do describe progress, eg how far I could bend my leg, so it is something I can look back at to inform me as to when I can expect things to improve this time around
Last time I had the op I took a pic of the xray of the new hip. They wouldn’t let me do it this time citing GPDR. GPDR?!?! It’s my bloody hip. Apaz I have to ask the consultant which will be 6 weeks after the day of the op.
BREAKING NEWS
The mountjac deer are back. Mother and baby. An audacious daylight visit at 07:08am this morning.
Filed under: diary,Fox News — Trefor Davies @ 8:46 am
I have now purchased a vernier caliper and should in due course be able to report progress with the calibration of my screw collection. Arrives today. May not see immediate action because as you know I am convalescing from a major operation but it gives me comfort to know that the moment I feel up to a stint in the workshop it will be there ready for me to use. It was the Amazon recommended tool for the job. A simple mechanical instrument as opposed to all the electronic versions I was being pushed, with LED screens. Huh. Wosthatallabout? They aren’t electronic screws.
Toast and bacon this morning. Bit more of an appetite although I have to say that my sleep patterns are not good having to lie on my back all night. Up and down all night to the loo. Dunno if it’s the lying on the back or the medication. Blood thinners. Nothing in the notes to suggest that side effect but it was the same when I had my first hip sorted.
I have to say I am confident that once I’ve got through the initial month or six weeks I will have a new lease of mobility. The last time I did it the first two weeks were a bit tedious but after the body started to get its act together and progress was rapid. Also the last recovery period, whilst being successful where the operated leg was concerned, was hampered by the clear deterioration in the other hip so I never totally got back up and walking properly.
Enough of this hip talk, daddy oh. I await the bacon that is currently sizzling under the grill. The toast is already made and buttered and there is a bottle of HP Sauce on the table in front of me patiently waiting to be squeezed.
So the day ahead looks like this. Well I have no idea actually. It will mostly be spent in the armchair in the snug. This was moved from the shed as being the most suitable height for sitting on in order to not bend the hip more than 90 degrees. In reality I add some cushions and also have a purpose built memory foam cushion for the top layer designed for a comfy bum.
THG is off out to the gym shortly but when she comes back I’ll have a shower. I can do this without help but I can’t get the surgical stockings and socks on (or off for that matter). At least the stockings are easier to get on and off this time. Since I lost a lot of weight my calves and ankles are smaller. Restart the Mounjaro jabs on Monday once I’ve got over the initial recovery from the hip hop. Progress must continue. Actually I bought a couple of shirts before going in for the operation. One size down from my usual and the fit was great. Don’t think I’m going to have the opportunity to wear them for a while. It’s all about slobbing about right now. Also whilst I normally wear jeans of some sort for the next few weeks it is tracksuit bottoms. A lot easier to get on and off using the grabber.
I did think I’d step up the family tree work once out of hospital but right now my brain still isn’t in top gear and I can’t focus on that stuff. It’s the writing it all up is the issue.
Fox trotted by at oh one fifty three, went around the back of the greenhouse and then off again. I have this on CCTV as well as lake cam. The lake cam also detected some movement at around half six but there is nothing immediately obvious in the footage.
Was totes knackered last night and retreated upstairs around nine o’clock. Needed help getting my left leg into bed but it’s already improved this morning and managed by myself. The knack is to sit on the edge of the bed, hook the good foot under the “bad” leg at the ankle and hoist them both up. Simples. Progress. Woke briefly at four thirty and dropped off again until six. Already doing prone exercises in bed. They make a difference. Rotating the feet keeps blood clots away and squeezing your cheeks and pressing down the “bad” leg helps strengthen the operated on area. After the initial post op incapacity I am already confident that progress will be good.
The love of my life has gone downstairs to make the tea.
I was picked up from the Park Hospital at three o’clock yesterday by our Joe who has very kindly come up for the week to help out. All our kids are good. THGs car ain’t the biggest Peugeot 208 in the world and there is a knack to getting into it after having a new hip. The front passenger seat has to be pushed as far back as it can go and you have to go in arse first whilst squeezing your head through the highest, rearmost bit of the doorway. Needed help getting my left leg in. Getting back out is legs first followed by head then bum. A far cry from the days of the Land Rover defender where the seats were at the perfect height and with plenty of headroom you just had to slide yourself across. There again the defender wouldn’t fit in most French car parks.
Am about to postpone next year’s trip to Vietnam btw. Turns out October is the rainy season. Both Hue and Hoi An are under water and the hotels I’ve booked are islands. It’s a good job I spotted this. Will be rebooking at some stage. October is too risky a month for what was not going to be a cheap trip even when using Avios. Comments on Vietnam travel sites say that nobody goes there in that month. We booked it because my companion voucher runs out then but we can repurpose that.
Now downstairs and have consumed three small slices of toast (sourdough) and marmalade. That was the end of the loaf but THG is off on a scavenging mission on her bike this morning and will no doubt come across another loaf. We have some bacon in but tbh that is too filling right now. Will restart the jabs on Monday but it would appear that a few months on Mounjaro has left me with a small appetite even though I stopped it a couple of weeks prior to the op. This is good. May not need lunch.
There are potatoes, potahtoes bubbling away on the stove. What what what do I hear you say? At breakfast? A pea and watercress soup is in the offing which, as you will know, contains spud. I have a ham knuckle in the freezer awaiting call up for a ham and pea soup but I will need to wait patiently for that. That soup is not yet on the radar. Perhaps when the cold weather starts to bite. There is nothing quite like home made pea and ham soup. Whenever I see a ham down to the knuckle at Waitrose I tend to buy it.
The news this morning suggested that parts of the country would have frost today so pea and ham soup time might not be that far off. I look forward to the need to don my thick Black Yak Himalayan woolly sweater. Bought it at the Lincoln Christmas Market a year or four back. Solid.
I am not in a hurry today. Joe has gone out running. The build up to the Seville Half Marathon has already begun. Three out of four offspring are running plus a son in law. We will all be descending on Seville towards the end of January. Runners and supporters. Only shame is the flights don’t arrive until Friday evening which more or less writes off that day. Can’t imagine the runners will want a late night even though the race isn’t until Sunday. I’m going to rent a car the following Monday and go on a tour of southern Spain ending up in Gib. Dad did his National Service there with the RAF and I’ve never been so a visit seems overdue.
Last night’s fox action was no fox. It was both cat, variously at 05:49 and 06:22 and muntjac deer at 01:51. I was going to say tiger not cat but it didn’t look anything like a tiger, having no stripes and tiger would have been big news. Imagine catching a tiger on lake cam never to see it again. Where did it go? What happened to it? Were it not on camera nobody would believe me. It wasn’t on camera. Believe you me 🙂
Today will mostly be spent on my laptop in the snug. The advantages is that I am set up there for the following month. Comfy armchair at the right height, small table to put my tea cup down, stuff like that. On the other hand the shed has two large screens making it a far more useful workstation. Even when looking at your family tree it is useful to be able to jump back and forth between windows. See how I get on. My desk chair is also at the right height but it concerns me that the deck might be a little slippery.
More in due course, I daresay.
…
Aforementioned pea and watercress soup consumed for lunch. Luvly. Fair play. With a crust of brown bread and butter. Never understood why anyone eats bread without butter. The Europeans do. Also our John. Didn’t get it from me. If we are in a restaurant in France or Espanã I usually ask for butter to go with the bread though not if it’s to eat with cheese. Don’t need it then. Especially runny cheese like camembert. Yogi likes French cheese, camemcamem bear. If you know you know.
Now sat back in the snug with THG having to endure the news on the wireless. Streaming on the telly actually but same thing. Only thing is I don’t like listening to the news. Never anything good. Ole Trump’s middle east ceasefire seems not to have held, does it. Bang goes his Nobel Peace Prize. Again. Hey… I guess he will have to move quickly before senility completely takes over. Or has it already? Uhoh.
There is good news about new species found on a remote sea bed. Very good.
The radio is also on in the kitchen where a son is fixing himself some lunch. Now it’s been switched off in the snug. Phew. Replaced by the click of needles of the tricoteuse. I prefer this to the news. Quite relaxing. A far cry from the French revolution and madame la guillotine. A shudder runs down the spine. Clunk. The sound of a head falling off.
…
Went for a nap on the bed. Put the heating on. Bloomin cold just sat in a chair. Now I’ve put on a dressing gown and also got a blanket over me legs in the snug. THG will come back from her swim and complain that the house is too hot. Joe is in the shed where the heating will be on. The shed is a nice warm place to hang out. He is working. I’m not. I am drinking too much tea though. Keep having to nip to the loo. Not particularly good when you are on crutches. A mad dash to the toilet is not good on crutches 🙂 Will have to cut down on the liquids.
Ordinarily I mix my time between the shed, workshop, total fitness (pool) and the house which varies my routine. Plus spins out to Waitrose, diy shops and golf. Not so many trips to diy shops. I still haven’t finished sorting out the workshop. The screws are separated onto countersunk and round headed but I still need to arrange them by size and thickness. Something to keep me busy over the winter. For example an M6 screw has a 6mm diameter. I don’t know which screws are which M. It makes sense to have them sorted by both thickness and length. I’m sure that some of my older screws are “imperial” so perhaps that is yet another subdivision. Will have to see. To some extent it is down to which rawplugs to use and which drill size. This is important 🙂
I might invest in some calipers for this job. There may be some already in the workshop though I don’t think so and I won’t know until I’ve finished with the sorting. I’m pretty sure there aren’t any. The other tools I “need” are a socket set. Maybe just order online. Hang on. Metric or imperial? 🙂 I don’t need these things until I have regained mobility. At least 4 weeks which is when I can drop a crutch. Tuesday 25th November. Fingers crossed the time will go quickly.
I’ve resorted to BBC iPlayer. The Secret Letters of Mary Queen of Scots. Sfine. I prefer historical documentaries to populist stuff.
Not a particularly good sleep. Nurse figured it was because I’d slept a few hours in the afternoon under the anaesthetic. Plausible. Wasn’t helped by sore hip muscles though the soreness is already abating this morning. Been doing a lot of the exercises which are fairly simple at this stage of the game. Very simple. Now waiting for nurse Rachel to come in and run the six am tests. There is also a fairly full “flask” to remove for emptying and replacing. You get to hear it all here 🙂 I’d expect to be able to get up and use the loo from here on. I guess I’ll need to be able to do that if I’m going home, which could happen this pm.
Started listening to the shipping forecast but dumped it as I was neither trying to get back to sleep nor planning a journey by sea. Instead I caught Farming Today. I like listening to Farming Today although the content is often about problems, usually financial related. If you wind the clock back far enough we were all farmers. The problems would have been different but still often financial related. Witness the Rebecca Riots for example. The Peasants Revolt even. The peasants are revolting your majesty. That Rebecca!
So by now I’ve worked out how to use the bed controls. Should have listened to the nurse in the first instance when it came to controlling the lights. I got the how to call assistance bit but the how to switch the light on by simply pressing the yellow button was an instruction I missed. Would have been considered to be multi-tasking and therefore beyond simple me. When another nurse did it in front of my eyes I realised where I’d gone wrong and no longer needed to stretch to switch the light off at the wall. They think of everything innit.
I’m ready for a cup of tea now. At home we take turns in the morning and I was the last to make it but unfortunately for THG there is going to be a month of me not making the tea after I get home from the hospital. She is a trooper. How would I do without her? The garden would turn into a jungle.
Cup of tea is on the way btw. I can’t remember the name of the nurse who came in and offered after the blood pressure etc tests. Wasn’t Rachel. Trouble is I’ve seen so many nurses, each of whom has told me their name, but each of whose name I’d promptly forgotten. They do wear a name badge but the font isn’t big enough for me to read, at least not from my position in bed. Also the lighting is a bit low. Sharon I think. Her name. A Nottingham gal of maturing years. Great patient manner but there again everyone of them has been great.
Today’s important session is with the physio. She is the one who decides that I can go home. If I can get it done this morning then I’ll be able to come home this pm. If she thinks I need a bit more time she can redo the assessment after lunch and I’ll be home this evening. I expect I’ll be ok. All I have to do is walk up and down some stairs correctly and do ten yards or so along the corridor and back. Done it before albeit on the other leg so should be ok.
The build up to having this second hip replacement has been interesting in that my left leg has always been the stronger one. Ever since I broke my right leg on a school ski trip to the Dolomites aged thirteen. Sapada. I still have the photos of mountains I took on the trip, somewhere. Turns out one mountain looks very much like the next when you look at the pics. Now that the right leg has had to take the brunt of the work because of the arthritic left hip it feels as if it has been getting stronger. It’s all relative of course. I’ve not been bounding up the aforementioned mountains but I’ll take it.
When I broke that leg I was taken to hospital in Cortina and put on a ward with three old blokes. None of them spoke English and my Italian hadn’t progressed beyond Grazie at the time. It now incorporates “due birra per favore” or similar. I have two memories of being on that ward. Firstly the nurse offered me milk, a choice of caldo or fredo. I opted for caldo thinking that was “cold” but it came hot. Strange, I thought so I left it to cool down. Everytime the nurse passed she saw that I hadn’t touched the glass and finally she had to ask whether I wanted it. I explained the sitch which is then the moment I found out that fredo was cold. Not immediately obvious. In fact both caldo and fredo might be interpreted as meaning cold.
The other memory was of the three old guys. They would each get a small bottle of red wine with both lunch and evening meal! On both occasions one of them would open the cupboard door and pur the wine into a large flask already half full of vino. Then during visiting hours their families would bring them more wine. Once the nurses had finished for the day they would open the cupboard and start partying. I declined the offer of a glass. No idea what they were in hospital for that allowed them to drink wine. Hey…
After the skiing was over the other kids went to Venice for the day before flying home but I had to come along later with one of the teachers as I wasn’t deemed agile enough to hop on boats and walk around the city. It was decades later when THG and I finally visited the place.
Back to the present I’ve had a couple of paracetamol and been pumped full of antibiotics through the cannula currently in posish in the back of my right hand. It’s a bit of a faff having it but needs must. At least they’ve removed the tube to the saline drip that has been in since the op yesterday. Hopefully I’ll be able to avoid opiates henceforth Didn’t need them last time and I still have a full bottle of morphine and some pain killing tablets left over from then so will certainly not have to pay for some more. Interestingly the blood thinner, Clopidogrel or simlar, was far more expensive that the morphine whose price is presumably governed by market forces/street price 🙂
Brekkie is not until sometime between eight thirty and nine but there is no rush. I made sure to get brown sauce on the order this time as last time it appeared with no sauce at all and it took five mins or so to bring by which time I’d almost finished eating, despite slowing down the pace. Ya can’t have sausage and bacon without brown sauce. Ketchup in a hot dog is fine but that is not breakfast.
In other news just got an email fromYouTube:
Hi trefor davies,
It looks like Dingus Fucking Khan may not be appropriate for younger audiences under our Community Guidelines.
We placed an age restriction on it.
Our age restrictions are in place to help viewers avoid watching content that they may not feel is acceptable for themselves or for their children. We review content on a case-by-case basis and will make limited exceptions for appropriate educational, documentary, artistic and scientific contexts.
How this impacts you
This video won’t be visible to viewers under the age of 18 or who are not signed in. Otherwise, your channel isn’t affected.
It might be argued that this fitted the above mentioned “artistic context” but I’m not interested enough to ask them to review the case. Wonder if Facebook will do the same. In fact I’ve now changed the name on FB but it should be obvious what the original word was. My stuff is not visible to non friends anyway and I have no kids in my friends list. The original word stays on Philosopherontap.
Sfine. Dingus FK were a band we saw in the late night cabaret at the Latitude festival a few years ago. Their language was atrocious but it was after eleven pm so no kids there and their music was v high intensity. The whole place got up and bopped. The cabaret was for me the best bit of the festival as they had better booze and tables and chairs to sit at. The beer available at the main arena was Tuborg lager which was terrible not to mention expensive. I could put up with the expensive bit if the beer was good but it was like pisswater.
Dingus FK, when we saw them had just returned, presumably by popular demand, from a two year ban by the festival for trashing the portacabin that had been laid on as a changing room. Urination was involved as I recall. Doubt they are still going now. Maybe a reunion tour at some point?
…
Just finished my Full English and now feeling stuffed. Suspect there is still some lingering Mounjaro effect. Will be restarting it next week.
Tharrldo for now.
…
Feels like a bit of a production line does the hospital. This one does anyway. They feed people with something wrong with them in at one end and churn them out fixed at the other. That’s the principle anyway. I daresay there are variations of the theme. Partial fixes. Not sure I’d want to be a doctor. They must get a buzz out of doing the job. The people are all v nice. I think the people are all v nice in the NHS as well but they are under a lot more pressure. Much higher workload.
When I get home I have four weeks of applying only 50% weight to the fixed leg. Whilst it doesn’t mean no walking, and I certainly have been given exercises by Natalie the physio, it will mean sitting down a lot. In my case this means doing a lot of work on my book. Much research has been done that can now be written up. Once I get going it will start to flow.
The problem is one discovery leads to another and it gets to the point where there is very little written down. You have to start getting creative by looking at sources not directly relevant a particular person or at least not in an immediately obvious way. For example reading wills from certain parishes can reveal a lot – people get left things in wills who aren’t initially obvious when looking at the name of the person whose will it is.
My 7g grandfather John Jones was left Maesnonni farm by a certain Richard Hughes. John was the son of Richard’s sister Elizabeth. Liz therefore is my 8 g grandmother and must have been married to David Jones. The naming went David ap John ap David etc. This carried on for at least the next century until the male line died off. Presumably it was also the same going back but there are no records from the 17th Century. We really did live in the back end of nowhere. As rural as it comes. Still the same today.
This does mean you have to trawl through a lot of sources to find anything but it is really satisfying when you do come across something relevant.
In other news I dunno whether I’ve ever mentioned it but I really am a messy eater. I therefore decided to tuck my napkin into the top of my shirt before tucking into a bowl of tomato soup. This worked not because the other end of the napkin got dunked into the soup itself. Doh. What’s worse, the act of removing the napkin from the soup resulted in a splodge of tomato soup being spilled onto my tshirt, the very thing I was trying to avoid in the first place. Nice soup mind you. Had the same thing for dinner last night and thought I’d repeat the order flunch.
Woken up at six twenty five by a very cheery Jamaican nurse who knocked and breezed into the room pushing an equipment trolley before her. She did mention her name but my brain was a little fuzzy and it didn’t stick. Ran the usual gamut of tests. Temperature, blood pressure, that kind of stuff. Trying to think what else. That one where they clip something to your finger. Pulse! All good. So now I’m awake and the corridor outside sounds as if it is getting busy.
Today is the day. No breakfast, no cups of tea and only the very occasional frugal sip of water. Slept well though I did avail myself of the rare opportunity to listen to the shipping forecast when I briefly woke at around three am. Set it on a fifteen minute snooze.
At three am I also looked up BA reward flights from Asia to London as I need to book ours in a couple of days. There were two available in business class on the route I’m after. By seven they had gone. I’ll need to be sharp when I come to do it myself later in the week. I’m adding to an existing companion voucher booking and in theory they do make more available for such bookings but I can’t see it if I’m not looking to book using the voucher and I’ve already used it so I can’t, if you see what I mean. Worst case is I cancel the trip if I can’t get the return flight. It’s always been ok in the past so will see how it goze. I have a backup route home.
Had a load of visits after the wake up call. Firstly the on duty night nurse called in to check on me and removed the jug of water from the side of the bed in case I was tempted. I said I could always get some from the tap which engendered a grimace. Not sure why as it is the same stuff they feed into the water fountain which is her preferred source. Then nurse Sheena came in to go through a checklist. Yes I do have an implant – it’s in the hip that’s already been operated on. Dr Brown the Anaesthetist popped in for a chat and said I could have water. Knockout guy. Finally Mr Manktelow the surgeon swung by and drew a large arrow in black felt pen on the top of my left leg. All good. Need to be in my gown by about eleven. It’s eight now.
It’s a good job I have my laptop and a book with me. I think if I was stuck in the bedroom for weeks on end it would be a problem. I totes sympathise with people who are in that situation. It’s going to be bad enough sat in our snug for the next month keeping the weight off my leg. They do want you to go for walks as well but you have to keep the weight off the “new” hip then as well. For walk read shuffle. Hey, first world problems. Look out, bus stop sign here I come.
The keeping the weight off the leg thing is down to the fact that these days the hips are “uncemented” whereby they let the bone naturally bond to the titanium spike. This approach apparently makes it easier to redo the op if required in years to come. Using the old “cemented” method the bond was immediate and you could walk very soon after the op.
Physio just came in with a couple of crutches. I was happy to point to the ones I already had in the corner. Saved me thirty eight quid. I just need the rubber feet changing on the existing crutches which she is going to do whilst I’m under the knife, so to speak.
…
Had a long trail of nurses visiting, each in a different coloured uniform from what I can recall. I guess I’d only really know if I lined them all up and took a pic.
…
Doc swung by seven thirty ish to check up on me. Said it was pretty much a carbon copy of the other hip op which is encouraging as that has to go down as a major success. Even said it was easier to do as I’ve lost a load of timber. Now ten past nine and I’m watching the imps away at bradford.
Just entered a competition to win a used car. Exciting. VW Golf GTI or similar. I should find out by 31st December. Fingers crossed eh?
Having a relatively chilled day of it as we will be setting off for the hospital at around 3 ish. Staying in the night before as they want me in by seven in the morning. The thought of having to get up at 5am to get to Nottingham by seven is somewhat unattractive. Was the same last time. The only difference is that they comped me a night’s stay on that occasion but that must have been an anomaly. This time I saw a different nurse who told me the number crunchers wanted a hundred and seventy five of the king’s finest, paid in advance, before giving me the room key and doling out the cups of tea. Tbh it’s a bargain. Saves a lot of stress before the op.
I am hoping only to stay in for one night post op this time but time will tell. Depends on progress and availability of people like physios to sign me off. They want to see me walking with crutches including up and down stairs. After that I face a month of sitting on my arse with the occasional getting up to do some exercise and walking. I bought a memory foam cushion this time as my backside got somewhat sore with all the sitting down.
The one difference this time around is the fact that I’ll be starting back on Mounjaro after the op which will dramatically reduce my appetite. The first time around I didn’t bother with healthy eating. It was more about recovery. This time the dynamic is different. My use of Mounjaro has been quite successful. I’ve lost at least an inch off the neck, added two holes in my belt and dropped a shirt size. I would like that progress to continue. Had to go off the jab the week before the op but now need to decide when to restart. I quite like the idea of getting in a steak and chips before I do 🙂 We don’t have chips at home very often. Maybe one or twice a year! Home cooked chips are infinitely superior to anything you get in a restaurant. Proper hand cut jobs.
Filed under: diary,Fox News — Trefor Davies @ 9:15 am
The prime meridian in Lincolnshire runs through Holbeach, Boston, Louth and Cleethorpes, running in geographic order. The nearest point on the Prime Meridian to Lincoln is near Tetford, in the Lincolnshire Wolds, roughly 20 miles away. The line runs through the churchyard apaz, a spot marked by a stone put there by the parish council to commemorate a royal jubilee. Dunno which one. Gemini did not elaborate and I did not ask. I had hoped that the meridian would run through Lincoln but deep down I think I knew that it didn’t as I’d already have known this, it being a big thing and all. I’m told that due to the movement of tectonic plates and improvements in satellite technology, the true prime meridian has shifted slightly east of the historic marker but tbh it’s good enough for me.
Okaaay I hear you say. Where’s he going with this? Well I mention it because this morning, as of one am, was two am, we are back on Greenwich Mean Time. At last. Yay. If you’ve woken up feeling a bit out of sorts, perhaps very slightly jet lagged, that is why. Goodbye British Summer Time, hello to the approach of winter.
Some might think this is a little odd, or at the very least unusual. It isn’t because I am glad to see the back of summer and look forward to cold miserable January and February days. No siree bob. In fact the cold and miserable days do sometimes come with benefits such as cosy log fires, warming soups and wonderful Sunday roasts. Stuff like that.
No it is because I like the idea of being sat more or less where time begins. This is of course an artificial construct and it only begins relative to the rest of the planet and really only so that we all know when to turn up at the Odeon to watch the movie on screen 2. BST feels a bit flighty to me. Doesn’t last. GMT is always there whether you realise it or not.
On the subject of the Odeon. We get a “perk” every year through our bank account. Over the past few years we’ve had a magazine, Steam Railway Gazette or similar, membership of the Gastronomy Society, again or similar, whereby we got 25% off food at participating restaurants, Disney Plus membership and six tickets to the Odeon. The only outlet in Lincoln where we seemed to be able to use the Gastronomy discount was, if I remember correctly, Jenny’s Cafe just off the main shopping drag in town. Not much use to us. The most recent was the Disney membership but there was bugger all there we wanted to watch so in the new year now starting we have reverted to the Odeon tix.
This is all well and good but I’ve just had an email from the bank welcoming us to another year of happy Disney watching. This is as well as the one from a week or three back saying we would get our odeon vouchers five working days after 25th October. Sigh. Do I now ring them to sort it out or wait five days to see if the Odeon tickets arrive? Undecided. Certainly don’t want to hang around in a telephone queue.
Just looked to see what’s on Screen 2 at the Lincoln Odeon: Sketch (12A) – “a sketchbook falls into a strange pond, her drawings come to life”. Sigh.
Aside from this I sense a no pressure day ahead of me. I do need to put some stuff back in our bedroom following the decorating but that can be done at a fairly relaxed pace. It will even give me the opportunity to sort out/ditch more clothes that I never wear. I will also set the fire. As you know one of the nice things about racing headlong towards the dark days ahead is the fact that we can have a nice fire going. Thassit.
…
Fox time btw was 01:17 this morning. Muntjac was 03:09. I’ve not seen the mother and baby for a while now. Either the kid has fledged, so to speak, and gone off on its own, or it has been taken by a fox or similar. Might have been mum who has disappeared. This one was very tentative. Looking around and making sure the coast was clear.
One of the nice things about eating half a grapefruit in the morning, and I’m sure not all of you will agree on this one, is drinking the juices straight from the bowl when you’ve finished. There is always some juice and the odd bit of grapefruit left over. Difficulty to stop really even when using the purpose built serrated grapefruit spoon. The spoon btw is a marvel. It isn’t accurate to say that it slices through the grapefruit like a knife through butter because its serrated edge is made for sawing. It saws through the grapefruit segments like only a grapefruit spoon can. If you don’t have one, buy one. If you don’t eat grapefruit for breakfast then it is time to start.
Today is a day for putting furniture back in our bedroom. @Micky has done a great job turning the old design into THG’s dream decor. No details necessary other than to say it is v nice. Now I have to put the curtain rail back on which is a bit of a bugger as it has to be screwed to the ceiling of the bay window. For the middle bracket we don’t have the ideal solution but it will have to do the job. It’s a wedge shaped bit of metal into which you slot the bracket that holds the curtain rail from which hangs the curtain. Because it is a bay window it is difficult to get the pole into the brackets at the end. Not sure I’m explaining it adequately here but tbh it doesn’t matter.
I also have to repair the bed. It broke a decade or two ago. Before you start sniggering there is a perfectly innocent explanation but I don’t feel the need to tell you what it is 🙂 Anyway I did a repair job at the time that has served us well for many years but the moving around of the bedroom furniture undid the kluge and now I need to repair it again. This time with screws as well as glue.
Need to get it done this weekend as I will be returning to it from the hospital next week after hip hop two and it needs to be a certain height off the ground which I think our bed is the only one we have that fits the spec. In the meantime we have discovered how comfortable the bed is in one of our guest bedrooms. Fair play.
Overheard THG talking to Joe about the “Traitors” tv programme whereby she mentioned one of the cast members who has been chucked out. Blast. Totally ruined it. Now there is no point in my watching it, at all. Tbh this brings me no distress whatsoever. I did watch part of one programme some time ago and concluded it wasn’t my thing. Not many tv programmes are. I find myself unable to join in (what I consider to be uninteresting) conversations about last night’s episode of some programme or other. One of us is missing something. I’m sure we all have different perspectives on who that might be.
In the meantime I am able to report a visit by Reynard the fox at oh three twenty seven last night. This follows on from ten thirty one pm on Thursday and around quarter past eight in the evening on Wednesday. He appears to have been in the garden for five minutes or so on that occasion.
Home sweet home, unpacked, lit the fire, feasted on sausage beans and toast, and now chillin on the sofa in front of said fire. There is news a plenty from the lake but tbh it will wait. It is time to switch off. Was called upon to do a couple of jobs upstairs but they have been sorted.
At 9pm we will watch HIGNFY. One of the few progs I like on telly. In the meantime the dancing fire is sufficient entertainment. Our Jose is working away in the shed. Came home from London Town to help us out next week whilst I am in having hip hop two, fair play but his week is not yet over.
THG is catching up on some of her fave progs in the snug. Tonight will not be a late one.