Blood on the Carpet

Fortunately I'm not particularly squeamish. 

Last week I was just about to get dressed and start the day, when a blood vessel in an artery in my right leg burst. Heaven knows why because the leg and artery have been part of me for over 80 years without any problems until then.

With my left hand clasped around a folded handkerchief stemming the flow I hobbled round the bed to the telephone.  The line was dead. The phone was out of order. Fortunately my cellphone was nearby and I used that to ring the emergency services. Within no time at all an ambulance arrived and, using the keycode, accessed the front door key and came in. It was a blues and twos call so everyone in the area knew that something was amiss.

After an emergency bandage had been applied they took me to the hospital and after more examinations and another dressing I was free to go home. Fortunately friends from nearby were in town and took me home.  A few days later a district nurse came to review the situation and give me advice on bandaging etc. 

I thought that I was looking at a new carpet and an insurance claim but we have a maker of magic who has a carpet cleaning business on the Island and after some hours of work he had the carpet looking almost as good as new. Certainly liveable with without the hassle of a new carpet and an insurance claim.  Amazing!

Missed!

I missed the month of October.  Not really, of course, in that I was here in the Land of The Living. Just not in Blogland. The first time, I think, I've miossed a whole month since June 2007.  When I woke this morning and realised that that it was suddenly November I also realised just how fast my life is flying by now I'm in my eighties.  

 

I'm no longer making promises to myself because I'm realising that I'm not keeping them and I always  used to pride myself that if I made a promise then I kept it, come Hell or high water.

 

What made me realise how out of touch I was getting was an email conversation with a Blogland pal from the early blogging days. It made me realise, too, just how many of my Blogland pals are no more. 

 

The irony is that in my 80s I am now fortunate enough to be busier than ever. Or am I? Perhaps the reality is that I am no busier than I ever was but  everything takes so much longer and much more effort. 

 

A friend has just bought a house in Sicily and is moving there. She offered me a ride there. Given that she owns a Bently that was very tempting. The reality is that I will never travel abroad again because, after my history of bouts of sepsis which have appeared so often and suddenly in the middle of the night, I have lost my confidence. 

 

I am fortunate to have lived what, in my terms, has been a very interesting life here and in New Zealand. So despite what would be an absolutely wonderful opportunity to re-visit Italy, a country I love so much, I am staying put in my Island home. I might, of course, pop down to Glasgow occasionally! Fortunately I am reasonably fluent in Weegie. Probably because of my knowledge of Scouse.