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!!!
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