Friday 8 September 2023

It’s been an awful long time since I wrote anything on this blog (some 15 months). I’ve scribbled the odd ‘reflective note’ (and even some prose – although never very successfully) in various notebooks.
I’ve just started reading Jonathan Coe’s book ‘Bourneville’ (published in 2022)… a novel arising from his own childhood growing up in ‘the Midlands’ (and including references to his mother Mary, born in 1934) and the life we’ve lived over the past 75 years… including such things as “the coronation and the World Cup final, royal weddings and royal funerals, Brexit and Covid19”.
In my own 75^th year, I’ve become far more aware of my own mortality(!). Although I still enjoy good health, my body has started to ‘wear out’… I need another hip replacement (I now walk with a stick and my mileage has become severely reduced); my hearing and sight reflect my old age (I now have 3-monthly glaucoma eye checks); I need to wear ‘medical stockings’ all the time to reduce problems associated with varicose veins and the like; my hands shake on occasions; my teeth are falling out.
My world has definitely shrunk. I no longer drive (although I still have a licence, I took a decision to stop driving some 6 months ago)… I depend of public transport to get around (coupled with my frustrations of not being able to walk any real distances). I’ve become quite anxious wherever travelling is concerned (not helped by numerous rail strike days and cancelled trains – resulting in being unable to reserve seats etc)… having to depend on timetables and arriving in good time! I currently don’t have a passport and I no longer yearn to travel abroad or embark on exciting adventures. Basically, I’ve become very boring.
Very unusually, I’m also finding myself comparing our lifestyle (and sense of adventure) with some of our friends/family… for instance: Alan+Lesley taking perhaps 7 holidays a year (perhaps 2 or 3 of which are abroad); Robin+Sue spending perhaps a third of their lives in Spain (and, when home, gallivanting around the country); Dave+Sarah recently returned from Oberammergau Passion Play in Germany and are currently in Italy on a pilgrimage.
On top of this, I’m still in a spiritual wilderness (which has perhaps been the case for the past 3-4 years?) – so much so that, last November, I decided to take an indefinite sabbatical from attending church services while I endeavour to wait for this period to pass. 10 months on, nothing really has changed (I’ve been one afternoon ‘service’ at Saint Stephen’s… which certainly didn’t inspire me).
The fact is… that I’m a quite boring person! My adventures seem to be limited to: reading, bookgroup, sketching, cinema, urban sketchers and Blokes!
 
All this, of course, goes alongside Moira’s much more serious predicament of endeavouring to cope with her Parkinson’s Disease… and all the uncertainty it throws up when it comes to planning for the future. At present, she’s in pretty good health… her walking is good and she’s in contact with her excellent PD nurse, but her energy levels are low and she needs to spend most afternoons lying down or sleeping. Her medication has made a tremendous difference, BUT (in conjunction with PD nurse) some changes have been suggested to try to provide her with better nights. The PD nurse’s letter was sent to Bedminster Family Practice some 5 weeks ago requesting specific changes to the medication but, despite two telephone calls to the Practice, nothing has changed. To make it even more frustrating is the fact that she’s been allocated Dr Sam Parker as her link GP as far as her PD is concerned… she’s never met him (or vice versa). On top of that, M’s PD consultants have STILL not been in touch. She met them in May22 and they told her then that “we see her in the clinic in 3-4 months’ time”… it’s now been 16 months (the PD nurse wrote reminding them 5 weeks ago – but still nothing).