I haven't really been avoiding you

I've just had a lot happening inside my head lately. Things have been getting more than a little on top of me one way & another. The weather hasn't helped. When I quit work, one of the guys in Auckland that I know gave me a whole heap of stuff. Among it was one of his company work shirts, with the remark that it was my new fishing shirt, because it's UV resistant. We went fishing a week or two back. I hauled it out of the wardrobe & came to the realisation that I hadn't actually used it or been out fishing since i quit work. Not good. We have now been out a couple of times. Not much in the way of fish, but we enjoyed ourselves.

Another problem is lack of social contact for me. We have come to a bit of a hiatus in our travels & I miss socialising. To remedy that, I have started volunteer driving to take patients from our medical center to Waikato Hospital. have done two trips for them so far.

Meantime, I'm getting back into actually achieving something every day at home. So far so good. Pretty soon, I'm gonna have to bite the bullet & actually start concreting. Herself goes to waikato hospital on Friday for hopefully what will be the last in the series of feeding tubes for a good 12 months or so. now all we got to do is get her wonky knee sorted out..

Old Dan's Records.

I recently did a bit of what for me was a very clever little bit of horse trading. The details aren't important, but for me, its a win win situation. I have ended up with a lot more space in my garage & a kickass stereo system. I've been busy the last couple of days sorting it all out & installing it to my satisfaction. Its absolutely fantastic. I wont bore you with all the details, but I now have Wharfedale speakers at one end of the lounge & my good old trusty Fishers at the other end. TV & DVD all run back through it as well..

One of the things I had to do to run extra speaker wiring was shift one of the stacks of LP's that I have on the shelves. Its fatal to do that with me. It wasn't long before I was siting there thinking, "Hey, I haven't heard that one in a long time... Or this one. " See , these days I have such a good collection of CD's & they are so easy to play that I haven't given my vinyl much though. So there was "Gord's Gold" sitting there. Gordon Lightfoot. So me being a glutton for punishment I HAD to put it on. Herself is away at patchwork, so I can play it how I like... LOUD.

The only problem with playing Lightfoot is the memories he brings back. Some of the tracks bring back memories going right back to when my first marriage broke up. Good memories of a friend that I now have no idea where he is. he was a good friend at a tough time & he used to know Gordon. We used to sit in the cabin of his yacht & I would play & sing & he would sit there with a far away look on his face. He would tell me how much I reminded him of Gordon & how well we would get on.

One of the tracks on this album herself & I had played at our wedding. Its a very appropriate song for us now. We had no idea of the implications in it at the time. The track is Rainy Day People. Here it is..

A few of my Favourite things

Don't expect all the raindrops on mittens & hound dogs on kittens garbage that Julie andrews sings about in The Sound of Music. For the record, it is my proud boast that I have never actually SEEN that movie. Sorry, but Julie Andrews just don't spin my wheels somehow. Even the picture above isn't actually one of my favourite things. I'm more your basic hunter gatherer type. I'd rather go out & kill something to eat rather than wait for it to grow.

However, the look on Herself's face when she found out that I had installed the above picture as her desktop wallpaper was definitely right up there on my list of favourite things though. So is the taste of fresh snapper. I had almost forgotten that one. We got out fishing on Wednesday. It wasn't till I got back that I realised that we hadn't actually been out since I quit work. Thats way too long. It wasn't the best of days & we only caught 5 snapper, but that was enough for two nice meals for us. Sadly, Herself can't eat battered fish any more, but I had a bright idea & she enjoyed her fish. I pan fried it & served it with a lovely (even though I say it myself) caper sauce. Turned out nice it did.

The picture at the top of the page ? That's Herselfs favourite clematis out the front of our house. It is really looking rather beautiful at the moment even if you can't eat it.

Keerist its CCCCCCold !!!!!

Old man Winter has snuck up & smacked us round the ear for one last (hopefully) time it would seem. Ever since my son arrived from Southern Climes, the weather has been crap. We were intending to be down south by this stage, but I'm glad we're not. Im even glad that our trip to Hastings is out of the way as Jack Frosts icy fingers have insinuated themselves far enough North to close the Napier Taupo Highway as well as the Desert Road & a heap of other alternatives as well.

Once again, we have given in & lit the fire. It IS bloody cold here, as you can see by the attached pics. Both Tigs & Misty burrowed their way under their respective blankets for the afternoon as you can see by the attached photo's.
















Meanwhile, I carry on polishing the boat. Damn its going to look good when it finally gets on the water.....

Progress (I guess)

We had yet another outing to Waikato Hospital today. Its gotten so that the staff at Day patient Clinic know us by name. All we have to do now is show up & the rest happens. Herself had to go & have another endoscopy so that her plumbing could be rearranged & so that the ologist in charge of her case could see why the Micki Button wasn't a howling success. For those of you that don't know, an endoscopy is when you are mildly sedated,(to at least the point of insensibility) a plumbing device not unlike a length of garden hose with a light a little clamp on it is passed down the throat into the stomach. In Jude's case today, the light was turned on so that the ologist could see what the problem was, her current fitting removed from the outside, a wire fed in through the hole which was grabbed by the clamp & pulled back up through the throat. The new bit was then pulled down & through the hole with the mushroom sitting neatly against the wall of the stomach on the inside.

The reason that the Micki was hurting her was that it was protruding through far enough that it was touching the opposite wall of the stomach. The inside wall of the stomach is quite touchy about things like this & was continually trying to get rid of it the only way it knew, ie, swallowing it. Tired & scratchy I think would describe it. Anyway, the new fitting is in & at least there is an improvement in it as the fitting that holds it in place on the outside has a right angle bend in it, which makes it a lot less conspicuous than the original one. The Ologist has also managed to source out a new & improved Micki Button. Instead of having about an inch of tube & a latex balloon on the inside, this one has the same mushroom fitting that she has now. Even better is the fact that she doesnt have to have another endoscopy to fit it. This gubbins is fed into a metal tube which straightens out the mushroom, fed in from the outside & the tube removed leaving the mushroom in place on the inside.. White man's magic to the nth degree.

OTHER NEWS....

We be both busting our asses to get out fishing, but the weather isn't co operating. In fact, we actually gave in & lit the fire last night. Its not only us hanging out. One of the Ginger Ninja's saw me getting the boat out to take it in for a service & thought we were off & decided she was coming as well. This is a water safe cat seen licking its chops in anticipation of a feed of nice fresh fish...


That's her story anyway & I suspect she will stick to it........

Donner und Blitzen

Nature has been putting on quite a show tonight. As the heading implies, lots of thunder & lightning, interspersed with torrential showers of rain. I suppose it really matches my mood at the moment rather well. I've had better days. You see, we have been rather busy lately, but you know about that & don't really need me to tell you.

Today has been the first day at home for a while with no visitors & no trips planned, apart from maybe a trip or two to Waikato Hospital for Herself. She has been having problems with the Micki Button causing pain. It seems that the opening is too close to the outlet to the intestine & the intestine keeps trying to swallow it. (Too much information I know) The bottom line is that it hurts & something has to be done about it. If she want's to carry on using a button, they will have to put a new hole in. My personal view is that it would be a lot kinder to reinsert a fitting like she had. Certainly better than going back to square one with it.

Meantime, we are both busting our asses with the need to get some salt water under us. Although thunder & lightning is very spectacular, particularly at night, it doesn't make for good boating weather.

Well, we weren't expecting THAT

We went & saw District 9 at the movies tonight. I'm not really certain what I expected, but I don't think it was what We got. I know it certainly wasn't what Herself expected. Mind you, with Peter Jackson involved, I guess that one should expect the unexpected anyway. What we DID get was a very gritty movie with some extremely sharp teeth in it along with large quantities of blood, explosions, aliens, alien machines & the kickingest ass space ship you ever saw. We both enjoyed it. One of the previews was for an end of the world movie called 2012. I want to see it but Herself isn't so sure. I think that after District 9 she can handle it.

My eldest son, his wife & our 20 month old grand daughter came to stay for a week. Aside from him & little Anna getting a really nasty 24 hour tummy bug, we had a wonderful time. She is as cute as a bug, even though she is a bit of a handful. We all went to the Auckland Zoo & had a lovely time. I think Herself & I enjoyed nearly as much as Anna did. It's not cheap though, but worth it I think.

This is us just before they left. I don't think that I have ever been so upset seeing someone leave ever. Sean & I covered a lot of ground emotionally between us & we have set a solid foundation for a good relationship I think. Just a shame that the weather was crap. I would have really liked to have got the 3 of them out in the boat for a look round up Coromandel way. Top Dog is now in A1 condition & all ready for sea, including a near new 5hp Yamaha motor as an auxiliary. Roll oon the good weather..........

Spring has sprung

I'm sitting here typing with the smell of fresh rosemary on my hands. I love the smell of rosemary. It is possibly one of the most fragrant herbs that i know of. I use it a lot too. Both herself & I enjoy roast lamb, but things being what they are, the only time we lash out on a roast leg is when we have visitors. Its not cheap either, which I find ironic seeing as we grow the blasted stuff in profusion here. No, if it's just Herself & me, we usually invest in 3 or 4 lamb hocks. That way I don't end up eating cold meat for about 3 months. My favourite way of cooking them is to put them in a lidded roasting dish with a generous sprinkling of finely chopped fresh Rosemary, with a little salt for seasoning & red wine vinegar drizzled over them. Cook on a nice low heat,(about 140 in our oven) until tender. Remove from pan, drain off the fat, chuck in some garlic to brown, a slosh of red wine just because you can, then the water from the veges. In our case, silver beet. Swiss Chard by any other name OK ? Let it all simmer until all the brown bits are dissolved, season, thicken with cornflour & hey presto, a tasty gravy that really compliments lamb & mint sauce.

Anyway, spring has sort of snuck up on me unawares a bit. I should have realised. I was out back yesterday & Mr Blackbird was revelling in the birdbath. It didnt take much imagination to picture soap & a towel balanced on the edge of the bath. There were also about 4 cock sparrows competing rather noisily for the affection of what was obviously a very seductive & becoming young hen sparrow. Anyway, all this made me look with fresh eyes at my rockery & yea verily I was ashamed. Time has passed us by a bit & OK, as you know, we have been away a bit, but the plants had geared up & gone into overgrow mode while we weren't looking, so I just about had a Rosemary tree instead of a nice tidy little bush. So I gave it a haircut. Thats how come My hands smell of Rosemary.

While I was there I also got stuck in & did some weeding. You see, I need to do the weeding in the rockery so that I can put a mowing strip round the garden in the middle of the lawn. Confused ? Don't be. There are holes around my bathtub pool that need filling & building up. See the light now ? While I was doing it, I looked around as you do under such circumstances, & damn iffen there aint nice fresh buds on our grapevine & actual leaves on our Beech tree. OK, so we planted our vege garden a week or two back & the self sown broad beans are in bloom, but nothing drives spring home to you like the sight of fresh tender young buds optimistically breaking forth into the sunlight.

Muna's Mat

This is not Muna. This is Jess, the dog, & Tojo the cat. They are both like their owner. Quiet, gentle & really anxious to please & make you feel comfortable. Its the third time we have stayed with Muna & her husband Tony & we have enjoyed ourselves immensely every time. There is a warm coziness about staying there. Don't expect any photo's of Muna, because she is notoriously camera shy.

We had some stuff to drop off at a friend's Mum's place & Tony insisted on taking us. It was great being able to sit back & enjoy the ride for a change. After we had finished he took us sight seeing in Napier, culminating in a stop at the top of Bluff Hill. These pics are the view from there.












Pretty neat huh ? The view pretty much runs from Mahia peninsula in the North to the container wharf in the middle to Cape Kidnappers in the South. Tony took us to see a heap of other stuff too but this was certainly the most breath taking bit.

After a couple of days we bid a sad farewell to these wonderful folk & headed home. We were intending to do the trip over a road called The Gentle Annie, but were advised against it as there had been snow down to 700 meters overnight, so we elected to do the Napier Taupo Highway. There had been snow there too, but as it is a main road, they had sanded it so it wasn't a problem. There was still snow at the summit, so we stopped & had a snowball fight just because we could












Sometimes you just gotta let the child within loose & roll with the flow. Its good for you. We stopped for a sorta brunchy lunchy sort of meal at Stag Park Truck Stop. Someone had a really good idea there. A one stop truck stop where you can wash, fix, fuel,unload your truck & change drivers if you need to plus have a damn good feed as well. Big meals for big appetites & reasonable prices. We always stop there for a meal if we are passing through.

From there it was onwards & upwards through Rotorua & Te Puke back to Tauranga & Morty's place for our final night away. We also picked up our puter which Morty had upgraded. Its now running a hard drive of approximately 4 times what it used to have with the old drive as a cache for DVD burning. About all thats left in the box of the original computer now is the motherboard. Its running slicker than a bucket of greased weasel wotsit now.

So thats us home again. a heartfelt thanks to all who made us feel so welcome & comfortable. We both appreciate it more than you know. Well, thats us for a while. In just over a week we have my son & his wife & our darling little grand daughter, Anna coming to stay with us for a few days, so expect to be bored stupid with lots of grand daughter anecdotes & pictures.. catch ya later

East Coast rolling

This is herself gamely plodding onward & upward towards the most easterly lighthouse in the world. Its a hell of a climb, with steps all the way, but she made it. If you enlarge the picture, you will see the lighthouse at the top. It used to be out on an island called, strangely enough, East Island, but it was too difficult to service it with the notoriously fickle East Cape weather, so they dismantled it, moved it to the top of this hill & automated the whole shebuggins







This is Herself standing by said lighthouse. I must at this point, apologise for the quality of the picture, as our poor old, well travelled, much used & abused very second hand digital camera chose this of all times to expire with a shuddering gasp & accompanying wheeze never to function again, so this photo was taken with my phone. Its quite an awesome feeling standing up there. The whole East Cape area has a very moody feel about it & apparently the locals guard the hunting & fishing rights quite jealously.

From there we made our way back along 20 km's of dirt road with an added hazard. In the evening, the cattle come down off the hills on to the flats & that includes the road. Its very picturesque. I'm sorry I have no pictures at the moment, but they are still in my trusty old 35mm SLR camera. If they are OK, I will share them with you at a later date. We had a lovely tea at the motor lodge, sharing it with the Fultom Hogan road crew who were there repairing the road damage from the winter storms. That should have told me something there & then.

The next day saw us head off bright & early for Gisborne. It was also my birthday, so we had reserved for the night at a very upmarket motor lodge called The Senator. All went well till just south of Ruatoria. We came around a corner & the back passenger wheel dropped into a particularly savage bit of washout in the road. before we could blink, both back wheels followed by the two front wheels were off the road & into a patch of greasy muddy grass heading ass backwards into a ditch.

We were very lucky. The only damage was that Herself bruised her calf muscle quite badly. Sherman survived intact. The only real damage was to my ego at having to be dragged out of the ditch by a very friendly power board worker who happened along in his ute. We proceeded on our way like a James Bond martini. Shaken not stirred. From there the road went inland only coming to the coast for brief periods at Tokomaru Bay & Tolaga Bay.



This is the view that we had from our unit at the Senator Motor Inn. The lady there was absolutely wonderful to us, giving us a unit on the ground floor to make life easier for Herself. Very kind of her. I must admit that it was very pleasant to sit out there in the sun drinking coffee & watching the world go by. Oh, we bought a new camera in Gisborne as well.




Later on we went for a walk along the Marina. This is the MV Takitimu, a lovely old wooden launch that thanks to the generosity of local businesses has been fully restored. She now spends her days doing two two hour harbor cruises a day at $15.00 a head.

I caught up with an old Fire Service buddy that I hadn't seen for years. Bernie told me about a reunion there in November. Herself says I should go , but I dunno. It could get messy. In the morning, I took this pic of a couple of outrigger canoes training in the river. I like it a lot.


From there we saddled up & headed for Flaxmere, for a couple of days with Muna & Tony, but that rates another post on its own.

OTHER NEWS

herself went through to Waikato Hospital yesterday. They changed the PEG tube for a MICKY button. This means that instead of having a tube hanging down, she now has this neat little plug like an airbed valve. It all went very well & we managed to catch up with Estelle Our support lady from the Motor Neuron society & had lunch with her. Its always a pleasure to spend time with her as she is incredibly helpful & supportive. Today, Jude's brother & his lovely lady came down for the afternoon. It was good. Trish has made Jude a badge to wear on her chest . It reads, "I am not deaf & I am not stupid. I just have a motor Neuron disorder." A very thoughtful thing to do. Anyway, will do some more later. Bye now

East Coast Cruising

Well, we've been there done that. We hit the road for the coast last week. Our first port of call was Tauranga, to see Morty. You see, Morty in a very weak moment agreed to upgrade my computer for me while we were away, so as I wouldn't be going through withdrawals & she wouldn't feel pressured to do a quick job of it Its always fun to stay the night at Morty's Menagerie. its such a vital & ever interesting place. She seems to have this knack of attracting the unusual. From the never ending, (Or so it seems) stream of teenagers to the eccentric animals that make the place their home. Thomas, the cat deigned to share his bed with us, which made us feel just so special.

We stopped at Opotiki to buy a few bits & pieces that we hadn't thought to pack, turned left & headed out. The Coast is like a whole different world that neither of us had ever experienced.

This is one of the old churches that are dotted along the coast. They all have a charm all of their own, & are that cared for that you could almost feel as though you have stepped back in time.



This is the Ruakokore River. Wide shingle & slow flowing streams as opposed to the narrow, fast flowing & rocky ones that we are used to up here.

It's almost as if the early settlers had an acute sense of the dramatic. This is the historic church at Ruakokore. Founded by the early settlers it is still in use & beautifully maintained with a small cemetery at the rear with some really interesting stories to tell on the headstones.

We stopped at Waihou Bay for lunch. Well, who wouldnt with a view like that to contemplate over your salami & tomato sandwiches. The point that you see in the background is Cape Runaway, the place where the Tainui & Arawa canoes first made landfall in New Zealand.

From there the road made its curvaceous way up & over the hills until we finally reached Hicks Bay round 2 PM & checked in at the Hicks Bay Motor Lodge. We decided from there that we should probably do a run out to the East Cape & make the pilgrimage to the lighthouse, "Only 15 minutes walk" according to our congenial host. From Te Araroa, its something like 20 kilometers to the parking area for the walk up to the lighthouse 20 k's of dirt road with cattle wandering free on a large percentage of it. Herself elected at the motel not to change from her boots to her walking shoes, which in retrospect was probably a bad idea. Its more like a half hour walk too the lighthouse, & all of it up hill & all of it steps.

It looks like I've used up my picture allowance So I'll do some more tomorrow. It's time I went to bed. We off to Waikato Hospital tomorrow to finally get Herself's feeding tube replaced with a Mikki button. She can't wait for it to happen... Later all..

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Me

I turned over the vege garden this afternoon. There is something very satisfying about turning over a garden when the soil is rich & friable. Its even more satisfying when you know that the soil id that way because of your own efforts. When we moved in, it wasn't a good garden at all. The soil was all puggy, heavy & a lot of clay. Over the years that we have been here, I have invested a lot of time & effort into that dirt. All the fish gut gets buried there for a start. I have lost track of how many trailor loads of mulch that I have brought back from the dump & dug into it. Also, I have put a lot of compost from our own bins into it as well.

It's paid off. We now have this garden that is nice light black soil. The layer of clay has broken down into a lovely sandy loam, that aerates the soil nicely. It is all absolutely swarming with worms as well. Herself came out & planted some cabbages & tomato plants. Not as many as she has in the past, though I have no doubt that more will follow. It was a nice afternoon to be doing it as well. Sunny, but not opressively hot.

So what part did Stevie Ray play in all this ? Well, him & Double Trouble provided the entertainment. Work like that always goes a lot better with some laid back music to listen to. Its almost as good as the cold beer afterwards...

The next exciting episode....

Sad, but true, there will be a slight hiatus in the continuing saga after this episode. Hawkeye's puter has packed a big sad & is currently in the computer hospital. I did try to tell him not to take the concept of punching information into it QUITE so literally, but...........

The saga continues.....

Actually, Hawkeye has now settled down & is being relatively truthful. Read on, gentle reader..........

I publish these with the rider that I make no veracity as to the authenticity or truthfulness of the narrative. If you click on the images, they will expand to a readable size. When you read them, please remember that they are writ by an ex fireman renowned for mendacity & the extension to near breaking point of the truth. In seriousness, its all a bit of fun. Enjoy...

Thus far have I come...

On our way back, we stopped in at Kaiwaka & found the cemetery where my great great grandmother, Ann Leslie, nee Bairnson is buried. A remarkable lady, who came here from the Shetland Islands in the mid 1800's & settled at Kaiwaka. This a picture of her headstone. We did see the grave some 20 years ago at a family reunion, but the new stone hadn't been installed then. We both found it a very poignant experience to be there on our own...

And Herself wonders where the stubborn streak comes from....

We knocked the bugger off

Herself is healing very nicely post op with the gall bladder thing & we were getting somewhat bored sitting around home staring at each other. Its not that we are sick of the sight of each other or anything you understand, its just that we have been doing a fair to middling bit of it lately & felt like a change, so a change we had.

Tuesday, we loaded Sherman with our worldlies, ( well, as much of them as we needed for a week or so anyway,) & headed north. Well, as far as Waipu anyway. A very dear friend of ours has this amazing place that her & her husband have created on 10 acres of beautiful land. THIS is it. No point in me raving on about it. Just go look at the pictures. Grant & Annette spoilt us rotten & we had a lovely time catching up on whats been happening in our respective worlds & exploring the area. Herself added to her experiences by going for a paddle in a kayak. I couldnt get my fat ass into one, so elected to puddle along behind in the little plastic dinghy. We went across the estuary & went for a walk along a totally deserted stretch of beautiful ocean beach. Lovely. Herself & I also got to see our first native Kaka in the wild in some trees on another patch of land that Annette owns.

This is what they look like. One of our few native parrots, & they are beautiful in the wild. There are 4 of them there, & it would be reasonable to assume that they were blown over to the mainland from Little Barrier Island where there is a reasonably large colony of them. They are very inquisitive & will actually come down & talk to you.


From there, we headed yet further North. Kaikohe in fact, to spend a couple of nights there with my old Fire Brigade buddy, Hawkeye. He generously agreed to accompany us to Cape Reinga, the most northerly part of New Zealand accessible to the general public. It's a long drive up there & I really didn't want to put Sherman on the beach, so we went by road. For those that don't know, Te Reinga is where the Tasman & the Pacific oceans meet at the top of NZ & it can be very dramatic. It is also a very important place spiritually to the Maori, as this picture shows.

Their belief is that this is where their spirits come to so that they can start their journey to the underworld. Standing there, it is very easy to believe it. This is the point mentioned in the previous pic Its all very dark & broody.
This is Herself standing in front of the sign that shows how far it is to all sorts of places. Its sort of obligatory to take this pic.



This is what it looks like where two oceans meet. Its very hard to do it justice. It was a relatively calm day up there, but it still looked like a washing machine with about 8 or 9 foot swells running


Cape Maria Van Deiman, named after the wife of an early Dutch explorer is just around the corner on the Tasman side. Its a lovely spot, but the day we were there , the wind was blowing quite steadily into the bay. It would not be a good place to be in a sailing ship. There is no way to get out of it. The end would be quite inevitable.

Anyway, so ends the first part of our travels. As we have already been to New Plymouth & Wellington, that only leaves the East Cape to go & we have covered all 4 extremities of the North Island. All up, we covered just over 1000 km's & enjoyed every inch of them. More later...

Peace Love & Mud

Well rock on.. Today is the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. THE Woodstock. I didn't go to it. I would have liked to though. Don't know if I could have stood it or not. Half a million is a lot of groovy people. To quote Wikipedia...


Woodstock Music & Art Fair (informally, Woodstock or The Woodstock Festival) was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition", held at Max Yasgur's 600 acre (2.4 km²; 240 ha, 0.94 mi²) dairy farm in the rural town of Bethel, New York from August 15 to August 18, 1969. Bethel, in Sullivan County, is 43 miles (69 km) southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, in adjoining Ulster County.

Thirty-two acts performed during the sometimes rainy weekend in front of nearly half a million concertgoers. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest moments in popular music history and was listed on Rolling Stone's 50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll.

So Sayeth Wikipedia. I'm gonna put this clip in (a) because I like the song, & (b) because the video with it typifies the whole Woodstock thing, (c) because I really dig Arlo Guthry, & (c) I dont remember, so rock on.........

RIP Michael Jackson

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know its a while ago now since he died, but I just found this on Youtube & I HAD to share it with you. Its probably about the funniest 4 minutes that I have watched in a while...


In other news, Herself's youngest son is coming down for the weekend & we are hopeful that her daughter will come as well & bring the grandchildren. Will keep ya posted. Meanwhile, enjoy...

Pilgrim's Progress

The last few days have been overwhelming. So many people contacting us with kind wishes. On behalf of Herself & I thank you all. She is improving nicely day to day. The hardest thing I guess, is that she has to further restrict an already restricted diet. We have to get used to a new low fat diet as well now. Still, I had a brainwave yesterday. The freezer cabinets at the supermarket have quite a range of prepackaged weight watcher meals, so we have stocked the freezer with them. I felt for her at lunchtime today though, when I was eating a salad, which she used to really enjoy & now can't. She burst into tears. Not good.

I'm actually trying to lose weight. I have put on quite a bit since I quit work. You dont need to know how much, but its too much. So I have to eat salad & stuff. I have finally realised that I dont need to eat as much as I used to. Putting this in to practise isnt easy though.

Reality is biting a bit for us both in the dietary department I guess. Anyway, she is improving nicely & hopefully it won't be too long before we can start tripping around the place. She has 4 small cuts on her tum that didn't even require stitches, so apart from being a bit tender, she is progressing well. Once again thank you everybody for your love & concern.