Bits and pieces

No. 21    Sunday 20 November 2011

Oh dear, I'm somewhat overdue in letting you have another blog - just over two weeks since the last one. I cannot think of a good excuse (an unusual occurrence) so I shall just have to say sorry!!

I have resumed my daily music CD so I think that the non-playing (mentioned last time) must've been due to a glitch in my system. I have also been checking up on music which is played differently from what one would normally expect. There is a surprising amount, varying from gentle variations to vocals provided to tunes which were normally non-vocal e.g. Flanders and Swann's ‘Ill Wind’ which is based on Mozart’s Horn Concerto. A fairly extreme CD has been produced by Kenny Ball where he musically does traditional jazz variations of 15 traditional British tunes.

On Wednesday, as it was cold, I decided to take a taxi to do my shopping. Because I was taking a taxi I decided to try shopping at another supermarket, and the one which came to mind was ASDA. I had not been there before but with their advertising and regularly full car park I was expecting something special. My expectations were at fault. In some respects they were not as good as Morrison’s although having a clothes shop attached was a definite help because I wanted another large T-shirt. They also had Christmas cards in stock, which settled that problem for this year. I do not think I will bother to go there again unless there is something I specifically need.

The difficulties I was having with the timings of the carers who put my socks and shoes on (see blog 19) seem to have been resolved, at least for now. I have even been getting a copy of my schedule each week so my discussions with the boss were not wasted. I have been having a variety of carers, but I don't mind that, it means someone different to talk to if only for the short time they are here. Next week it looks as if I have settled down to my normal two carers - individually on different days, but at times which are convenient to me. I must contact their supervisor sometime soon to get the OK for them to do a few extra jobs on a couple of Tuesdays in December because the lady who does my cleaning and bed changing is going to be on holiday. I can manage without the cleaning, and the district nurses will change my leg bag, but changing the bed is way beyond my capability.

Looking at the pile of paper on my printer I really will have to do something about sorting it out. Every now and again I have a session of going through accumulated paper and dumping or shredding stuff I don't want to keep. This time, with the size of the pile, I think it is somewhat overdue. Back in the early days of computing it was claimed that computers would reduce the amount of paper used - that seems not to have happened, in fact more seems to be generated. Of course I am as guilty as anybody by printing off things which, I suppose could be filed on the computer and in addition things which I receive could be scanned in for filing. My reason for not doing this is that a computer is not 100% reliable and there is always the remote risk that a breakdown could render important items inaccessible. With constant electronic developments, both in software and hardware, and with human error always a possibility, I can't see any improvement in the situation in the future.

 
Mike