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5 March 2012

Posted by DMC on 6 March 2012 in Diary |

The ‘nose only’ mask proved to be a great success. It was much softer and more comfortable, and proved to be much more intrusive than the full plastic mask, which covers both nose and mouth.. This being the case, I shall revert to using this one as long as I can, in order to give the skin on my nose and cheeks, a chance to recover

The start on a frenetic week. I know we have visitors for the next three days, then the good Dr Michael arrives , from Sweden, en route to Australia and he will stay until Sunday. Whilst, my lovely dashes up to Wales, to sort out the final details following her mother’s recent Memorial Service. Fortunately for me he will only be away for one night. Narlier you a payday .

Our visitors today were the W-P’s (Judith and Barton William-Powlett). Both being Oxford graduates, I thought I could usefully get some recommendations for some good books to buy to use up my Amazon Gift Voucher. Barton came up trumps with one title. and daughter Chloe had already given me four suggestions.

As I said, in an earlier entry, my dear Chloe had prevailed upon Amazon to extend my gift voucher, so I was determined, to spend it before it expired. once again.. As Jane ‘the sheep’ was babysitting me. I got her to assist me to buy some books. It was just as well I did as it was a little more complicated than usual due to having to use up the gift voucher. We managed to get in and I purchased the following rules.

Charles Dickens:A Liife (My choice ). I have been a gret fan of Charles Dickens since I was a young man and apparently this highly acclaimed book gives an insight, not seen before of his life and times)

The next four are Chloe’s choiice

The Book Thief – Marcus Zusak (brilliant when you get into it – don’t be put off by the slightly strange beginning!)

The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon – a really involved tale These 2 are both quite long and require good concentration to stay with the stories – but worth it if you can give them time and energy

For a lighter to read.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell (I love Maggie O’Farrell’s books – this is her best – it is a contemporary novel but looks back at a relative who was committed to an asylum for not conforming – an air of mystery about it)

Water for Elephants Sara Gruen – really not sure if you will like this one! I absolutely loved it – it is a really good and gripping story set in a travelling circus in America around the time of the Depression (1940s?) It is quite racey as there is a love story running through it – but it really is a fantastic story and a real page turner!

Freedom – Jonathan Frazen (
Stories about Patty Bergland -whoever she was?! (Barton’s choice)

Anyway, I achieved my objective and spend the £40 gift voucher and have increased the number of unread books in my Kindle to around a dozen or so.Plenty to occupy me for sometime come

I telephoned our insurer about the defective spark inhibitor and they confirmed that they had no fixed policy on their use. Claire, the representative we spoke to, told us that they were probably okay provided they were taken down regularly and thoroughly cleaned otherwise they could be more dangerous then if we did not have one. In order to get up to the top of the chimney, remove the cowl, cleaning and replace it, would be quite a performance, so I decided to take the easy way out and remove it altogether.

I chased up. the Occupational Therapist today, asking where we had got to on the provision of the special cushion. for my ly NHS lounger. I got the fairly standard retort that they were extremely busy and would get to me as soon as they could. My OT did not think that would be very much longer. I asked her if she would be kind enough to give these people a gently nudge pointing out that in many cases the balance of life for MND patients can be counted in weeks and therefore a delay of several weeks in obtaining a piece of equipment could be significant.

Paul ‘the computer’ was scheduled to come round, to complete the re-installation of programmes and data onto my new the top. However, in the event, he did not turn up to 5.00 p.m. and took the laptop away saying he was going to blitz it that evening and he would see me tomorrow and, in passing, said that he had decided to strip it down and reinstall all the programmes from scratch. I think he had a long night ahead of him!

You can see from this Joke how desperate I am becoming for good material and the end of my entries in order to amuse the reader or divert him or her from the disability. I did ask my readers to send me anything that they bought other readers might be interested in, so we can share it with them.. So far I’ve only had one responds. So if you have something you’d like to share with the rest of us, please send it to me or put up with my feeble attempts , such as the following joke entitled Mexicans Jews. I was slightly nervous and toyed with the idea of trashing this one when it came in, in case it gave offence to my Jewish friends, but on reflection I decided that this was most unlikely, so why not so click here and see if you agree with me.

2 Comments

  • Christine from BC says:

    I have read the Book Thief and The Shadow of the Wind and can highly recommend both. If the like the latter then I have just finished his The Angel’s Game and found that very readable also. My absolute favourite author is Jeff Talarigo The Pearl Diver and The Ginseng Hunter – superb. As you can see I am a bookworm and my house is FULL of them…… I shall now go look up some jokes to assist you. Keep up the good blog…….

  • DMC says:

    Thanks Christine. It’s nice to know that you and daughter Chloe share the same taste in books. I shall certainly look at the other once you recommend but I think I’ve certainly got enough to keep me going for the time being.

    Best wishes

    Mark

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