Home - Again

Thank you all very much for your comments on my last post. I read most of them in hospital on my phone and then on my laptop when I eventually got out of hospital. The procedure itself is uncomplicated and fairly routine (every 4 months for me) and simply involves replacing my uretic stent. My problem for many years was my propensity to become pre-sepsis or even get sepsis which is not a Good Thing. My body has given the medics (and me) a right royal scare on a number of occasions. 

All that seems to be a thing of the past and the medics have got my infections more or less under control.

Anyway I was called into hospital earlier than intended because of an unusual infection that they wanted to treat intravenously before the procedure. I was then in hospital longer than anticipated whilst they made sure that I was clear when I left their care.

I arrived home on Lewis last weekend. I had left the heating to come on for a few hours each day to keep the house from getting too cold.  The house was very warm. I never turn the heating off completely. It's an old house and the main walls are solid and very thick. I never let them get completely cold and they act like an integral storage heater.  Somehow, though, it felt warmer than usual for being empty in the very cold weather.  I discovered that when the boiler was switched off by the control unit, it stayed on.  After a number of days and investigations the problem was solved and I have working heating. However I'm also now awating a new control system which will, hopefully, be more efficient.

My pond had almost emptied leaving very little water for the two sizeable carp who had disappeared into the depth of the remaining water and pondweed. I switched off the stream pump and re-filled the pond and it has stayed full so I have yet to discover why it had almost emptied in six days. There will, doubtless, be a logical and probably simple explanation but I have yet to expend the time and energy on the matter.

I won't bore you with the other irritations but needless to say they have been time-consuming and made me even less enthusiastic about leaving the Island again in the winter.

So, nearly a week since I arrived home, life is returning to normal which is busy without the hassle.

We had the Last of the Summer Wine Club Christmas Lunch on Wednesday. There are fewer of us each year. However it was excellent company (as one would expect) and I think we were all very satisfied by the food and service. We occupy the whole of the original lounge bar in the County Hotel (which hasn't altered one bit since we used to meet there for a drink on a Friday evening half a century ago!). It still has the wood panelling and the coal fire.

Nothing

I was uncharacteristically quiet recently and someone asked me why I wasn't saying anything. I answered that it was because I had nothing to say.  It's been the same with blogging. I've not been able to think of things worth writing about. Which probably says more about me than about what there is about which to blog. After all most of you find lots of interesting things to say and tales to tell.

I am in Glasgow today. I left Lewis on the ferry after lunch yesterday.  I'd left the Island a day earlier than planned because of the impending Storm Bert and the potential ferry cancellations. I had altered my ferry booking 5 days previously.

Yesterday morning the ferry company made it clear there were likely to be ferry cancellations all weekend because of Storm Bert. (How can anyone take a storm called Bert seriously?) So the ferry was rammed full with a lot of large commercial vehicles (I think they said 28) and 99 cars. Lots of vehicles were left behind not having booked on that crossing. 

My plan was to get to Ullapool or Inverness and stay somewhere overnight and then drive to Glasgow today. However the weather warnings made it clear that the route I take through the Scottish Highlands to Glasgow was likely to be impassable because of snow today. So I decided to get as far as I could on the 221 mile journey. As good fortune would have it despite the warmest temperature on the journey being Minus 2ºC (the coldest was -7ºC) and there being snow lying at the roadside the road itself was clear all the way and I arrived in Glasgow much to my friend's surprise at 2230! Very oddly I felt remarkably fresh and definitely ready for a rather good Cognac.

We haven't left the house today. According to the news bulletins the Scottish Highlands have been having a lot of snow and I'd probably still be stuck in Ullapool or Inverness. Or possibly been one of the people the rescue vehicle staff try to help without calling them blank blank idiots for ignoring the 'don't travel' warnings.

Optimism in Trouble

I am, by nature, an optimist. I always have been. Even as a wee bairn (English - small child) I believed that whatever happened would be for the best. Sometimes I was right and sometimes I was wrong. However my optimistic faith in the outcome was rarely shaken.

I have always ensured that this blog avoids serious controversy or political issues of any sort. I am a believer that we all have a right to our own views provided we afford the same right to others.

I hate to say it but I truly believe that this week the world that you and I have known until now has changed for ever. 

The US has suddenly declared that it has become completely US oriented with little or no interest as the guarantor of the 'Free World' as we like to call it.

Only two powers in the world can really challenge the US and Europe: The USSR and China. China has little of no military interest in conquering its biggest customers. Why would it whilst we are fuelling its economy to our mutual benefits?

The USSR on the other hand......

Israel's current Prime Minister now potentially continues to have carte blanche to commit genocide and cause total chaos in the Middle East to the economic detriment of The Middle East and Europe and much more of the world. 

President Putin can extend his empire by annexing the occupied territories of Ukraine with impunity. The Baltic countries which he covets are genuinely worried. Europe does not have the military might successfully to fight Russia on the ground. The UK has a nuclear deterrent, the use of which would be self-defeating and that's about it.

I'm 80 and will probably pop my clogs before a major conflagration involving the UK occurs.

I hope that I am completely wrong in that which I have said.

You will be happy to know that his will be the only post of its sort that I will write.

Taste and Flavour

When I was a wee child in Sunday School for some reason I used to sing "Thank you for your taste and flavour" instead of "Thank you for your grace and favour". Possibly because as a weenie I could understand the former but not the latter.

In actual fact it was probably simply a false memory generated a little later in life when I thought it would be funny.

Many years ago in the Sixties my mother succumbed to a very bad bout of 'flu. She was in bed for a while with the doctor in attendance. She recovered. However her ability to taste diminished. Later in life after another bout of 'flu her ability to taste reduced considerably. Oddly my ability to taste also diminished after various bouts of 'flu. My last one was at Christmas 2000. My ability to taste is now very poor but seemingly random. Some things I can taste quite well and many not at all. Like my mother I realised that for me texture is far more important than flavour when eating many foods.

My parents were very active until their late 80s and 90s but, obviously the energy they expended as they got less active decreased as did their need for food. However Dad still enjoyed his food whereas Mum did not. For her food was simply fuel although I remember she developed a liking for packetted Vesta Curry in her mid '80s. I assume they were meat although my mother had never really enjoyed eating meat. However they were very easy to prepare when they were still living in their own house. She also loved omelettes.

All this has come back to me in the last year or so now I've reached 80. I still enjoy cooking but really only for other people because that provides an incentive to do something interesting. I find cooking for myself a chore which gets in the way of other things I want to do but my body still needs fuel.

I eat exceptionally slowly which adds to the boredom factor. So I have routines for getting through meals when I'm alone. Breakfast I do Wordle and Words with Friends. Lunchtime I do a crossword. Dinner I usually watch the news. 

What does food mean to you?