A Brush with the NHS

 Dear Marmite

Ezra-Mae on the beer

It has been quite a week. It all started with a brush with a wasp. This wasn't even a sting. Nasty Mr Wasp flew past my hand very closely just as I was getting into the car to drive to Gatwick and pick your friends -Diane and Jeremy - up. After last year's incident with another nasty, I was a wee bit worried about my body's reaction.

The hand reacted quicky, it became swollen, sore, itched and burned. I went to a pharmacy the following day for stuff to make it better. No, they said. Go to your doctor. I tried, but as you may not know, Marms, over here seeing a doctor is not easy. Before you see any doctor you have to fill in the Klinik web chat as accurately as you can to help with diagnosis. Sometimes the multiple choice options leave me hanging - they don't cover what I think is wrong with me.  Much later I got a message saying I would get a call. I got a call much later still. The "doctor" wrote a prescription which no pharmacy could fill.  Argh.... 

My hand

I sent another message over the web chat and by Saturday I still had a swollen hand and no medication so I called 111. I got mixed messages from two different respondents. Number 1  - go to hospital immediately. Number 2  - a doctor will call you. I had two phone calls much later but couldn't get to either of them as they rang off after 3 rings. To be honest, I am so lucky this has not been life threatening. 

So one week later - almost - I get to speak to a real doctor over the phone who decides I need two new epi pens ready for the next sting. Surprise, surprise - I tried 2 pharmacies yesterday afternoon and neither have epi pens so I am back to square 1. What a palava!! 

The NHS did much better cutting a lump out of my neck last Monday. It was about 2.5cm cubed which seemed rather large to me. As they say, better out than in. Now I have a  few stitches along my collarbone which I have to self manage. The downside - no swimmimg for two weeks and I am so close to completing my 58 miles. I have managed a couple of games of tennis though.

A big plus is having company to stay. It keeps me busy and as I live in a nice part of the world I enjoy sharing it. The Cosgrove Canal Boat Festival happened last weekend. The Canal was a riot of colour and the tow path was buzzing. There were loads of quality crafts on offer too. I now have a hiking pole with a compass on the top end. This, Marms will be a plus for anyone walking with me as you well know. No need to do any of my famous detours ever again!

On Sunday afternoon I met Richard and Ezra-Mae and we sat at the Beer Boat and had a couple of rather nice beers. Mine was called Hazy Daze, I seem to recall. Nothing better than sitting out by the water on a glorious summer day - apart from Ezra-Mae flinging her snack bag high into the air and it landing in the narrow gap between the boat and the bank. That girl has got a really good thrown on her!

And so Marm, another day begins - what joys do I have to look forward to in this sunny land, I wonder?

Love you as always

XXX

A Fridge too Far

 Dear Marmite

It was lovely to see pictures of you reunited with your old friends Diane, Jeremy and Vanessa at Rail Mall the other day. I only wish I could have been there too. Despite your dotage, it is good to know you still remember everyone and the area too. You truly are an amazing old man!

Tomorrow I will be seeing Diane and Jeremy myself. I am quite excited too. At least they will not need to acclimatise to the weather over here. In my area of Britain we is expecting unprecedented temperatures of 40c today and there is a severe heat warning across the country. It is 7am and I sit here in my livingroom quite close to my new and very much needed fridge-freezer. It has been quite a saga getting it and now it is nearly in situ I can breathe a sigh of relief that is here ready for the heatwave.

I know it is not yet in the kitchen area as I now need my handyman to come and remove the cupboard area of the old integrated one. The old one had multiple issues and it was time to move on and stop swearing at it. The freezer froze everything far too much and caused a snow flurry each time I pulled anything out of it. The fridge section was not much better. Every few days I had to mop a pool of water from under the veggie drawers. It really had had it.

So with that in mind I popped down to Currys to buy a new one just a few weeks ago. I was promised it would be delivered that week as it was in stock. It wasn't. It came last Friday and as with the sofa, the men refused to carry it up the stairs. I had measured the stairs and was sure it would fit. So to make it lighter for me to carry it up, I took all the shelves and drawers out and took the doors off too. While I did this I muttered under my breathe cursing the house I had chosen. Errrr. Nasser, Colin - my nextdoor neightbour and myself edged it up the stairs and I reassembled it that evening. No problem. I reckon I could do this as a job!! All I need are my kinights in shining armour as my muscle.

I also had my two grandsons for an eventful few days last week. Individually they are darlings but collectively they wind each other up. I did manage to wear them out so they had a film in the evening but I have to say there is not enough room in this letter to tell you half of what happened. There is a broken sunflower in my garden that to me is an appropriate metaphor for the experience. Suffice to say that they left half their stuff yet again. C'est la vie.

Today I am off for a swim - sensible I reckon in this heat. I will be cycling there. I did 40km in 40c around Angkor Wat a few years back so I am not too worried about a couple of miles to the pool and back. I am a little more worried about popping into MK hospital to have a cyst removed from my neck today. The actual cutting doesn't bother me. It is the after effects I worry about. So Marms, wish me luck!!

Love You

XXX

A thorn in my side

 Dear Marmite

Summer is in full swing and everyone seems to smile more over here. It is lovely to be in the UK at this time of the year. My flowers are surviving the drought and my garden looks quite pretty. So why do I have a need to complain?

Life is never smooth. That is how it was when I set off for a spin on my bike and YET again I end up with a flat tyre. This is a bit of a groundhog day moment. It happens for too often. Of course, it all needed sorting and so with my bike in bits in my garden I found a very small thorn sticking through the tyre. I fiddled with it for some time before I thought. F**k it - I am going to get a new tyre! And, that is what I did. Some ££££ later and about 2 minutes fixing the bike shop had kitted my wheel with a pretty solid looking tyre. So it remains for me to try it out now.  Errrr.

I have also bought a new fridge-freezer. Currys is relentless in the amount of emails it sends to me asking how I like it and what I could also buy to make my kitchen experience even better. I also get emails about the payment plan for the fridge. This has probably delayed my writing to you!! The only trouble is that I don't have the damn thing. It hasn't been delivered. Temperatures are going up to 30c so that fridge had better be here soon. Errrrr.

There is one thing happening now that is even more exciting than Wimbledon. That is the Boris Shitshow and Omnishambles all rolled into one. If it was a movie you couldn't make it up. Chris Pincher - or more aptly named - Chris Groper was the final straw. Now the cabinet are admitting to lying for Boris and have resigned. Why did they lie to start with? Has no one in the cabinet got a shred of integrity? Surely it isn't just Boris that is rotten to the core? Errrrrr....

So in the national media people are being dragged out to talk about the Boris legacy. Loads of bollocks and drivel floating over the airwaves. From my perspective on this is his world beating death rate from COVID and a BREXIT that still isn't sorted. I don't think history will be kind to him. Apparently when he leaves number 10 he will be homeless - how sad!

Watching Wimbledon live has been a great waste of my time and I've loved every minute. I am mostly wrecked after two hours of tennis so I know how much playing tennis at that level must hurt! I would like to see Jabeur and Kyrgios as champions with only one small addendum - I hope against hope that Kyrgios has been wrongly accused of being abusive to his girlfriend.  I don't want to support a mysognist though I do tend to go for the off beat players. I loved Nastase back in the day!

And so Marms, I have to admit to having enjoyed having Shadow around for a couple of days. Shad the Bad moved her bed so she could see me in bed. She also refused to walk over a lock so I went on another route with her. Apart from those things she was quite a little darling. A lady walking her own dog recognised her and asking if the dog is walking was Shadow.  She is famous in these parts!! 

You Marms will always be my number one though. 

Love you.

XXX