Thankyou BBC

I’ve just been listening to “Afternoon Play: Pips” (BBC Radio 4), a wonderfully perceptive gentle comedy set in a dentist’s waiting room. The action was carried through a series of internal monologues, occasionally interspersed with dialogue; Glyn Houston as the Professor really captured the vulnerability of a recently widowed burnt-out academic and, his sense of frailty and mortality was beautifully balanced by the revelling in her own fecundity of Dr Powell, a former colleague. Although the play was set at a dental surgery, the only thing that set my teeth on edge was the top and tailing song, as James Blunt nasally whined “ … yow-er bew-ooo-ti-ful”!

This play, along with Monday’s “The Fortunestown Kid” and Wednesday’s “The Discourse of Two Once-Young Women” have once more served to remind me just what an excellent service the BBC provides.

Whither Normality?

This afternoon bore witness to my first “collapse” for a few days but, it leaves a big question. Am I wrung out by the ache and discomfort of the facial shingles or, is it simply a reflection of the norm?

I really am starting to question what it means to be ‘normal’ (perish the thought); for all the painful irritations associated with shingles I cannot honestly say that I’m feeling much different to what has become my ‘normality’, except perhaps the headache is slightly more persistent.

What has really been brought home to me is the fact that I have been ‘unwell’ for so long; the abnormal becomes the norm!

Keeping an eye on things

Well, I decided to take the plunge and see my GP this morning. The bruise-like spots around the bridge of my nose and my eyebrow seemed to be causing a constant headache and slightly blurring my vision. Diagnosis shingles so, now, on top of my other medications I have to take antiviral tablets five times per day and, a corresponding application of anti-viral eye ointment. Tomorrow morning I have an appointment with the ophthalmologist at the District Hospital.

All of a sudden my life becomes a hectic social whirl, pure sensory overload! As Heterocon commented yesterday, “Life may get tedious at times but, never boring”.

Bloggers Block

Having spent the last forty minutes or so sat on my hands, to ease an ache in my wrists and elbows, I’ve now permitted their release to knock out a little blog posting.

Unfortunately, a fog in my mind has taken over from the discomfort in the wrist; although the flesh may be willing the mind’s too numb to supply the appropriate words.

Saving for a rainy day

Just like bananas, they come in bunches. Tonight, this seems to be the case with terrestrial TV here in the UK; the programmes we’d like to watch this evening are on at 9.10pm ‘Sea of Souls’[BBC1], 9.10pm ‘The Talented Mr Ripley’[BBC2], 9.30pm ‘Rosemary & Thyme’[ITV1] and, 9.10pm ‘CSI:NY’[Five]. Also showing at 9.10pm on Channel 4 is ‘Sleepy Hollow’ but, fortunately we already have that on DVD. So, choices must be made so, I think we’ll watch the first, record the second to DVD, record the third to VCR and give the fourth a miss. It really is quite exhausting working out such action plans.

We’ll also be recording ‘The Pianist’ [10.45pm ITV1]; it’s a bit like saving up for a rainy day.

It’s certainly not that often we feel so spoilt for choice. Just because we don’t follow any of the “soaps”, I often get the feeling that we don’t watch much TV but, I must admit that it’s an enjoyable pastime when my emotional stamina is up to it.

Keeping the Faith

Today, my alter-ego Heterocon decided to rejoice and be glad. So, I rejoice in my stiff neck, clogged sinuses and rheumy eyes, in order to keep the faith. I give thanks that I felt incapable of emerging from the duvet lair until long after my beloved had ventured out, for her first appointment of the morning but, the thanks are even more heartfelt that she is now back home.

Concentration is rather low-level today and, although I switched on the Afternoon Play felt incapable of following plot, characters, or anything else. Still, I did manage to do a posting on Heterocon as well as this one and, for that I am grateful.

Felt Moments

A period of sound sleep followed an initially restless night; I only wish I could report that it was refreshing as well. Somehow, the rather grey day outside seemed to empathize with my generalized state of fuzziness. It was almost as if my head and torso had been bruised by a felt hammer but, brave soul that I am, I rescued myself from the duvet’s clutches by 11.00am and, come lunchtime prepared a dish of griddled Salmon, peppers, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes, served with jacket potatoes (pre-emptively prepared by my beloved).

Even as I prepared the meal, numbness down the little finger side of my left hand insisted on distracting me from my noble endeavour; I suspect the felt hammer had an ice pack at its core.

Weighty Matters

It’s almost too tempting to describe my lower limbs as feeling “leaden” today but, that wouldn’t be quite accurate. The reality is more akin to them being stuffed with sodden kapok and, getting up from a chair to walk across the room, my control of them doesn’t feel much better than if that actually were the case. Although it’s not an altogether unfamiliar sensation, I’m just hoping it’s a transient one.

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