I'm home: back on Lewis. It was a lovely
day's drive and sail on Friday. I've unpacked and regrouped (Glasgow =
shopping as well as concerts, visiting etc etc as well as hospital,
hospital and hospital). Yesterday was spent corresponding: snail mail,
email, WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram. Today was soup making day; a visit
from Gaz and wee Brodie for lunch; and a general clearing up in the
garden in the lovely weather this afternoon.
When
one is in hospital one has all the time in the world. Everything is
done for one. And yet with all that time at my disposal I achieved
nothing in the time I was sitting in my nice little room with not even a
television for distraction. So I listened to music, read the previous
Saturday's 'Times' from cover to cover and did all the Mind Games. And
almost nothing else for three and a half days.
I
did gaze out over the Glasgow Necropolis occasionally. A great view
from a hospital! Glasgow's Great and Good of old lie there.
Okay.
I was rather ill for the first day or so until the intravenous
antibiotics worked their magic but why didn't I actually use a pen and
paper and draft some of the blog posts I wrote in my mind whilst sitting
or lying there? Why didn't I write letters? (I write at least a dozen
snail-mail letters/cards each week - usually more). Why didn't I read
more than 3 chapters of the McCall Smith book I had with me? Why?
A mentor of mine once talked of how she went to support a woman who was labouring with a baby who would never breathe. The room overlooked a cemetery and my mentor rushed to shut the curtain.
ReplyDeleteWhy would hospitals have views of cemeteries? it's just a little insensitive.
I'm sure you thought a lot about the words you will eventually commit to paper or screen and once thought about, the writing will be fast and flow.
I'm pleased you are home, it's much more healing
Kylie, I've never found cemeteries depressing places. I think they can be a wonderful reminder of lives lived as well as a place of lives that have ended. Glasgow's Necropolis is full of rich and interesting history. I have no idea why the Royal Infirmary and the Necropolis are next to each other but I would thing the original Infirmary building was very much of an era with the Necropolis. I think this summer I may do a little research on the subject.
DeleteI've been trying desperately to remember what I was thinking about in hospital as well as when I was driving into town this morning.
As for being home - there is no place like it!
Thankfully I am rarely ill, but if confined to my bed for more than a couple of days, I always read 'Jude the Obscure'. It is so depressing that it invariably does me good!
ReplyDeleteCro, I've never been able to read any Thomas Hardy after trying to start one of his novels when I was in my 20s and abandoning it very quickly.
DeleteThat proves my point. You'd be out of your sick bed in a flash!
DeleteIf you had not said that you did all the mind games in the Times, I would have said your mind simply didn't want to make the effort, and the enforced rest did you good.
ReplyDeleteI am rarely ill, but when I am, I can be completely listless and inert, too lazy even to read or switch through TV channels with the remote.
Actually, I like cemeteries. Somehow they are often close to hospitals, aren't they? It is the same in my home town. When I had to be in hospital for 5 days for minor surgery in 2010, my room had a good view of the Old Cemetery (which is more a park nowadays, as it is not in use anymore). I didn't mind. I saw big old trees and beautiful statues and watched the birds and squirrels.
Meike, if I'm truly honest I didn't do all the mind games: some, like the cryptic crossword, are quite beyond me. I used to do sodoku but when I realised there was a formula and cracked it up to 'difficult' I lost interest in 'difficult' and below. I never managed to crack the harder ones and gave up. I have a book on how to do them but that seemed like removing the challenge.
DeleteLike you I like cemeteries. I'd not thought about their proximity to hospitals but the 'modern' ie 20th century hospital in which I was born was located next to a cemetery too and in a semi-rural area on the edge of the city.
Why? Because you were poorly old chap and you weren't in your comfort zone. By the way, I think it is rather disconcerting to have a necropolis right next to a hospital. It's almost like saying - this is your next destination folks! However, the necropolis didn't get you this time Graham! I am glad that you are home where you really belong.
ReplyDeleteTrue Neil. I didn't think the Necropolis was disconcerting to be honest. I am, however, definitely glad to be home.
DeleteIt's good to read a post from you, Graham...you have been in my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteWhy...sometimes it is good for one to let the mind do its own thing...minus fingers on a a keyboard or holding a pen over paper; Time to allow it to attend to its filing system...placing everything into some semblance of order.
Take good care...I'm sure being home is the best medicine of all. :)
As always, Lee, words of wisdom and common scene. Thank you.
DeleteLovely to have you back on the rock
ReplyDeleteThanks Andrea. It's lovely to be back.
DeleteI could never write a dozen letters/cards each week if for no other reason than the cost of the postage stamps. When I was a boy a first class stamp cost 3 cents. Today one costs 50 cents, but it is not possible to buy just one as our stamps are sold in panes of twenty — that’s ten dollars! Nope, I — a creature of words — can’t do it.
ReplyDeleteBob, I really enjoy writing letters and cards and many of my elderly friends in New Zealand no longer (or never did) use computers so letters, cards and post cards are the means of communication. I admit that the cost is considerable (a card/letter to NZ yesterday cost £2.27 although the standard up to 20 grams is £1.40). A letter within the UK costs 65p. I hate to think what my annual postage bill is but, you know what, I'd rather do without a lot of other things before I'd give up my letters.
DeleteIllness, hospital life and the view of a cemetery would not be conducive to any creative work. I'm saying you weren't in the right state of mind. Sounds like you are feeling better now so outwit the pen and paper.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Diane, I missed your comment. Anyway I've been in again and out again since then and have written many letters!
DeleteAnother post I missed because the email landed in my spam-folder. (Just found it.) I shall have to be more alert! As for your question: The reason that one is in hospital in the first place is usually that one is not quite in top form... ;)
ReplyDeleteMonica, I'm having the same problem with Google comments etc ending up in my junk mail. I have to check it every day (when I remember). I even have all my 'rules' to send them to the in-box but Google is over-riding the rule.
Delete