Although I do acupuncture all day Mondays, for the rest of the week I can now settle into more focus on the minutiae of domestic life. I can hang out with Vicky for the good times and not just the medical appointments. I can do admin tasks promptly. I can choose to make a cake and buy complicated ingredients. I can hoover my stairs whenever I get the urge, and have porridge with one friend or sit in a field with another. I can look after my foreign students better. I am diligently getting up early and swimming most days as I don't want to Let Myself Go. I am like those retired people who talk about how busy they are all the time. I aim to recycle more, and live better, but not spend much money. If Vicky stays stable I will join the extinction rebellion protests about climate change for a day in London, but I will NOT get arrested. That would not be wise.
Josie
I am sad that I have got to the age of 89 without ever having been aware of Derbyshire before. It is a dramatically beautiful place with towering cliffs and wooded valleys, natural springs and spas all over the place. We stayed in a luxurious spa hotel, a bargain midweek offer. When setting off for home along the M1, Josie banned me from touching the Sat Nav. It was only when we passed Swiss Cottage that we realised we were being taken through central London. Josie drove calmly past Buckingham Palace, Marble Arch, Hyde Park Corner and Park Lane without turning a hair. It was a real treat for me. I never thought I would see those places again. More interesting than the M25.
Sister J gave me a book called The Poetry Pharmacy. It has a poem for every sort of calamity or just to refresh your spirits.
In the words of Alan Bennett
"The best moments in reading are when you come across something- a thought, a feeling, or a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours. "
Vicky
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