The end of 2011

No. 24    Thursday 29 December 2011

The last blog of the year, but I'm not going back over the year to review everything that has happened (which isn't much). The only comment I will make is that I seem to have been in a very very gradual decline physically. I realised this when I was thinking back about what I was able to do at the beginning of the year. As far as mental capacity is concerned, that seems to be pretty much the same - but then I am the wrong person to judge!!

Of course, surveying the past is something which I try to avoid as far as possible except where there is something outstanding from a previous occasion. I have always said that the two words ‘anger’ and ‘regret’ don't occur in my thoughts. The former is sometimes replaced by ‘retribution’ or ‘revenge’ but mostly by ‘why bother’. The latter is basically ignored because it is something put down to experience or something which is past and cannot be changed anyway. Edith Piaf had the right idea with her song ‘No Regrets’ of which I have both the English and French versions.

There is one thing which is still outstanding from just before Christmas. I mentioned in my last blog the company who had got their deliveries a little bit wrong. The last item eventually turned up on the 22nd so on the 23rd I sent them an e-mail pointing out the error of their ways. Apart from having an acknowledgement, there hasn't been any response but then I won't expect anything for a little while because I believe they are likely to have been swamped by complaints and been sorting things out after the Christmas and New Year break.

I don't watch a lot of television, because I want to try and avoid becoming a TV addict, but I do wish the BBC would restore their regular programming as soon as Christmas is over. I get used to arranging my day, or my watching, by when particular programmes appear and it confuses me when I am not able to do this. Fortunately there is a very good website which shows all the programmes and which can be set to show the stations in which one is interested. It also shows which channel each station is on and, by positioning the computer pointer over a particular programme it gives a potted synopsis of the programme - very useful!!

The improvement in smart phones has raised the thought in my mind that it might be an idea to get one which is smarter than my present one. There are two problems with this, the first being that I don't need a lot of the facilities which have been added to them, and secondly all this touch sensitivity is not much good when you have limited hand use, like me. My present phone is reasonably satisfactory in that I can make alterations by using a pen with the point retracted. I really only need a phone for its telephonic abilities and to display my shopping list (to support my not-too-reliable memory). I suppose my interest in the new ones is just my interest in new gadgets anyway.

I will conclude these meanderings by wishing you all the very best for the New Year.

Mike

Wrongs to be righted

No. 23    Wednesday 21 December 2011

At last I feel nearly human again. The problem has been that, about a week and a half ago, I had picked up some sort of infection which made me feel pretty rotten. After having had the doctor on the Monday I started on a prescribed course of antibiotics and the side-effects of these made me feel nearly as bad as the infection. Fortunately I finished the course four days ago and I think I have worn off most of the side-effects now.

It is all very well having technical gadgets to make life easier. The only problem is that when they go wrong I have to get someone to come and fix them. The latest concerns my power operated curtains which close and open by remote control. The one in the hall started still trying to open when it should have stopped (i.e. when completely open) and still trying to close, again, when it should have stopped. This happened a little over a week ago but I was able to stop a clicking noise (which it made) by pressing the intermediate stop button. Then, three days ago, the one in the sitting room started doing the same thing but the next day it refused to open all the way. I managed to get hold of the person who fitted them and he came yesterday to have a look. It turns out that this does happen sometimes and is due to a fault in some mechanical device in the motor. He is getting two new motors for me which will, of course, not arrive till after Christmas!!

Shopping on the Internet from well-known companies is normally a fairly stress-free job. I have found, however, one quite famous company (which produces high-quality goods) which seems to be unable to sort out deliveries at Christmas, even though they have been in business since 1707 - so it's not as if Christmas is new to them!! What happened was that I placed an order for four items for me and three quite large items for my three offspring for their Christmas presents. I placed this order on 7 December and their Internet receipt told me that the goods would be delivered by the 15th. On the 15th three of my four items had arrived but not the three which I needed as presents. On 16th I rang asking what had happened and was, eventually, told that someone would phone me back later that day. When, by late afternoon, they hadn't rung, I rang them and was told that somebody would ring me on the next day. The next day the same thing happened so I rang them again and was told that the three presents had been dispatched that morning - and they eventually arrived safely on Monday. Now there is still one item from the order outstanding, and after it arrives I will be sending them a slightly stroppy e-mail.

The sort-of Desert Island Discs, which I mentioned in my last blog, was reasonably successful. After an entertaining a few minutes trying to get my wheelchair up a small step into the cafe and juggling the furniture so that I could set my equipment up everything went fairly smoothly. Certainly the people who had requested music seemed to enjoy it and all had their little say about why they had chosen the particular pieces. Afterwards I was invited to comment about how things had gone and I'm afraid I wandered on at some length about the odd variations I would have made. I thought this might upset them but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Reading back through what I have written so far it looks as though I am full of complaints. This is not really the case, everybody has their difficulties and those show that I am no exception. I know that I should try to make life as easy as possible but sometimes faults in outside world tend to intrude.

I have Christmas nicely planned out in that I will be going to my elder son's for lunch on Christmas Day. This will follow my usual Sunday outing to the Quaker Meeting and fortunately I will not be delaying the lunch at all because my daughter-in-law will be going to church with the children and should be home around the same time as I am likely to be able to arrive. On the 27th my daughter will be visiting from Banbury and will be accompanied by my oldest grandson and his wife (who are expecting their first child - my first great-grandchild - early in February). The latter two will have been spending Christmas at her parent’s in Cheltenham and strangely enough it will be the first time I have met her.

I seem to have run out of rumblings so I will end by wishing all my readers (if any) a very Merry Christmas and all the best wishes for the New Year. As an afterthought I do not celebrate the arrival of the New Year at midnight because, in my view, there are 365 days in which to celebrate its arrival - so what is special about the first!!!

 Mike

Outings and (more) music

No.22    Friday 2 December 2011

Winter seems to be upon us now, certainly it is chillier now and forecast to get quite cold next week. I hope we don't get any snow because it makes getting around in a wheelchair that bit more difficult. Last year, on the odd occasion when we had some snow, I stayed on the road rather than the footpath because the roads were either clear or gritted. This year I may well travel a bit more by taxi because it takes me half an hour to get wrapped up for a wheelchair journey. That said, if I take the trouble to pile on the protection it is adequate and stops the weather getting at me!!

On Tuesday (6th) I will be operating a sort-of Desert Island Discs (in reality a glorified request programme) at a cafe in Stroud. This is for a new company which recently started up in Gloucestershire with the aim of helping people, who would otherwise not bother, to do things that they would like to do. They seem to think that as I can provide music I am going to be an asset!! At least this first effort will give them an idea of what is possible. They have rounded up a few requests - 14 so far plus one that I have added to improve the mixture a bit. Apparently the idea is that each person who has requested something will stand up and give a few reasons why they chose it. I'm not sure how this will work out but it's worth trying.

I have solved the problem of sorting out my paperwork (see blog 21); a lady comes once a fortnight to go through it for me. This means sorting it into four piles, Important, Shred, Chuck and Brochure. The poor old shredder worked overtime yesterday when the first attack on the accumulated paper was made. The lady is one who does jobs for the company for which I am playing music on Tuesday.

When I go shopping I sometimes encounter freestanding baskets with special offers in them. This is, I realise, a good way of attracting people's attention, but it doesn't help if the freestanding basket is right in the way of somewhere I want to get to because I can't reach over it. Sometimes the basket is positioned in such a place that it obstructs my access to a particular item although generally I can find a way of managing (usually by using the wheelchair to shove it out of the way). Another disadvantage of modern shopping systems is that frequently offers involve buying two or more of an item. It is often the case that if I bought two of something the second one would be past its expiry date before I could get around to using it. Luckily if I'm careful about the dates on packages I can sometimes take advantage of these offers. Some many weeks ago there was an offer, which was too good to refuse, for three bottles of washing-up liquid for the price of one. I am still using the first one and I reckon the other two should last me until well past next Easter!!

In sorting through my CDs to find various tunes I found that I have all sorts of gems about which I had forgotten. One in particular is called ‘20 Gramophone All-Time Greats’ and the title doesn't disappoint. It has such people as Rachmaninov playing one of his own compositions and Elgar conducting one of his. A number of the artists on this CD have faded from modern memory in many cases. Another CD I have is of music hall artists from the Victorian and Edwardian eras. One section of my filing system for CDs is what I call Chronological which covers the period roughly from 1900 to the 1970s. Even that excludes some which are filed under other headings like Traditional Jazz or Dance Bands. I suppose it's a good thing that I am the only person using this filing system because I think it would baffle anybody else!!

Mike