Morpheus Waylaid

The word, a couple of hours ago, was shattered. I see no reason to change that word, the only change is that then I hoped for a good night's sleep and so retired reasonably early. As I lay in bed, I felt somehow ill at ease with my body, a certain (indefinable) type of convulsive twitch seemed to take over the muscles of my limbs each time I started to yield to the call of Morpheus.

Had I been more mentally alert, this experience would be easier to understand, or ... is my mind alert and, therefore, at loggerheads with an exhausted body. It actually feels far more comfortable to sit upright than to lie down. A lttle wart, aligned with my bottom left rib, has started to twitch in syncopation with the warty growth at the juncture of neck and shoulder. These creatures may be referred to as benign but, currently they are proving themselves a malign force.

At present, I feel like a test-bed of dis-ease, in search of a hypochondriac in order to display it's unreality. Quite what that means is beyond my comprehension, so ... don't allow yourself to become too perplexed.

Sweet Dreams.

A Heavy Drift

Having stretched my lower limbs a bit more than of late, I am pleased to report a relative absence of aches and pains in that quarter. The downside is that, since returning home I have been floating in a weird kind of void, unable to concentrate on anything. Even so, I managed to struggle through the preparation of a delicious Salmon savoury rice for dinner.

Come the evening, I drifted into watching the beginning of Mahler 5 on BBC4 (Mahler being one of my favopurite composers) but, was lacking the emotional stamina to properly listen. Having switched that off, put on a DVD of "On The Beach", not exactly a barrel of laughs, more a very worthy film on the ludicrousness of nuclear weapons ... with them around we're all victims! After an hour, the semblance of concentration dissipated into the ether. At least I can continue viewing at a later time, quite unlike the horrendous experience of cinema going!

Even a beautiful Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc could only tempt me to struggle through a glass and a bit. Shattered seems to be the best word to describe my current state of being. I am fortunate, I am in love with my wife who also loves me but, even that richness fails to alleviate my current emotional inertia.

Perhaps a good night's sleep will go some way to restore my powers of concentration; I don't think that's too much to ask.

A Relaxing Evening

Went out for a brief amble, with my beloved, after tea; basically a little stroll around the block. This time, I was cautious not to follow a route that entailed climbing steps even though I might have managed bettter this evening.

On our return, we settled down to watch (and do a VHS to DVD transfer) "My Fair Lady", I'd certainly forgotten just how funny it could be and, how brilliantly Rex Harrison portrays Prof Higgins. Of course the primary reason, alongside the musical score, was to fall in love (all over again) with Audrey H.

The niggles in the elbow have returned so, I'll make this item short and sweet. Meanwhile ma belle amoureuse is writing up a brief blog for today on 'Bright Light'.

One Step Forward ... erm ... forget the rest

Just popped out to give the goldfish their second feed and, amazing discovery, my legs moved more easily than they have in the past couple of weeks! The aches in the arms, and all components therof, had somehow made me oblivious to the fact that my knees and ankles weren't bothering me at all. Yes, I know that, shortly after arising from my disturbed slumbers, my descent (of the stairs) was more of an ungainly stumble than a walk but, since then I've not really given the lower limbs any thought.

Sorry if this sounds like confessions of a hypochondriac but, it's quite simply that my varying body parts do have a habit of painfully intruding into the front-rooms of my mind!

For the moment, I give thanks.

A temporary anguish

One moment I'm sat upright, in a firm but comfortable chair, elbows and wrists duly strapped and supported. Next moment, discomfort has shifted in to the armpits; I stretch both arms, palms facing each other, between the thighs for a couple of minutes ease. My whole body cries out with dis-ease and, I am impotent to deal with the symptoms, I lie down on the bed and for a moment feel a sense of ease but ... it is only for a moment. These symptoms come and go, I know they will pass, go back to the upright comfortable chair and type these few words but, the very act of reaching out simply to type is totally dicomfiting. Will write a proper entry when the symptoms fade once more!

Restless Night

It's amazing the havoc aching elbows and armpits can play with the whole cosy psychosomatic being. Since retiring to bed, shortly before midnight, this is the third time I've gotten up so, this time decided I'd grab a little to eat and renewed my radio listening. It just seemed impossible to get off to sleep, even the pain-killers have had zero effect on the discomfort stakes so, this time I've decided to get dressed.That's the most comfortable thing to do, if I'm going to be sitting around.

Perhaps exhaustion will soon hit home and, I'll be able to sleep regardless. If I'm going to do any more surfing, reckon I'll have to don elbow and wrist supports once more before I look at what's going on in the big wide world out there.

A short lived "alertness" spasm

The modicum of alertness, which was my good fortune from around 11.00am, dissipated itself by 1.30pm. Simultaneous with the energy's farewell, a nagging ache verging on the really painful occurred in both elbows and forearms. As all I was doing at the time was a little light reading, one wonders where such a curse comes from.

The strapping up of elbows and wrists proved beneficial, so much so that I fell asleep during what promised to be a really good Afternoon Play on Radio 4. Admittedly once I struggled free of the arms of Morpheus, the pain at first seemed more acute. I thank God that it is currently no more than a nausea-promoting niggle.

As you are now bearing witness, decided to do a little work on the PC although it's not quite as easy with the wrist supports on. Having said that, I doubt that keyboard work would be on the agenda at all without their support.

Helen will be meeting up with her friend Hilary this evening, for one of their (theoretically) fortnightly conflabs at the Pizza Hut. I imagine our friend Graham will come around here to share the company of this not-so-old crock.

Tarantino On Telly

The Tarantino episodes of CSI were totally mesmerising, the tension being sustained right through from the opening scenes to the final minutes. Not exactly the sort of programme to relax one into sleep but, at least I can surf a while, and relax to the sound of Radio 2 before and as I allow my head to hit the pillow. As my dreams have all been quite vivid, when I remember them, I don't think Mr Tarantino will affect them one way or the other.

In total, it's been a pretty good day for me. I am learning to appreciate what I can do, rather than lamenting that which I would do if I had the energy etc. My beloved is hoping to (soon) have her own blog up and running; it seems like they're contagious. I'm sure that there'll be a link from here when there's anything to read! Meantime, I'm off to visit some other spaces. Goodnight all.

The Breeze And I

Towards the end of the afternoon, the cooler breezier day aiding and abetting, I managed a BBW (brief brisk walk) although the pace slowed down somewhat after the ascent of a dozen steps. To look on the bright side, I wasn't totally exhausted by the time we got back home and, I subsequently got around to repotting the Aloe Vera plant; providing I've not messed-up somewhere along the line, one plant has now become three. Not only do I find this plant aesthetically pleasing, the liquid squeezed from it's cut leaves has quite remarkable healing properties.

Providing I feel sufficiently alert, I'm looking forward to the Tarantino directed episode of CSI, postponed from last week. I may be back later but, please don't treat that as a threat ... it's not even a promise!

Extended sleep does not refreshment make

Emerged from my slumbers around 11.ooam, some 11 hours after entering duvet-dom. Although the sleep pattern was somewhat disturbed, my reckoning is that I managed at least nine hours of solid sleep. I would like to be able to report that I feel really refreshed but, sorry, no joy on that front.

A cooler, very breezy day is nonetheless welcome; it's truly amazing how much easier my knee and ankle joints felt when I popped out to the local shops a few minutes ago. Just had a quick check of my e-mail and, Yahoo had done a good job of sorting all the 'SPAM' into the bulk folder ... 33 items today, primarily offering bargain priced software ... 'premium' programmes at budget prices, how likely is that. There was a time when I felt the filtering was a bit too keen but, today all items really were spam.

I always find it better to delete 'Bulk' as and when I go into my mail account, that way it's easier to check whether any legitimate mail has been wrongly placed there!

After checking my mail, next port of call was PC Advisor to check out the news and the forums. There's always so much information one can pick up from other peoples computing problems and, there are some occasions when I do my own postings. It's really encouraging that so many people out there are prepared to freely offer help and advice!

So, that's my day so far and, I do gradually seem to be getting more alert. Perhaps the progress will continue.