Last September I had two medical appointments on the same afternoon. The second of these, at the dentist, had been booked six months earlier: the twice-yearly check-ups for me and my two children. Having turned 60 I am eligible for free eye tests, but still have to pay for all dental visits (including check-ups). So… Continue reading The 266 Bus Route
I have been poorly recently. In May, for the first time in many years, I was laid low with a chest infection. Long ago, starting in 1998, I had chest infections fairly regularly, half a dozen or so over a 10-year period. The first one, in the summer of 1998, really knocked me back. I… Continue reading “We can call it pneumonia if you like”
How are your sleep patterns? Perfect, disastrous, or somewhere in between? Mine are somewhere between those two extremes, nearer to “perfect” than “disastrous”. I expect that’s true for most people. The following 1,360 words are about sleep, leading to a memory about the best hour’s sleep that I have ever had. I’m afraid that the… Continue reading The best hour’s sleep I ever had
Back in 2019 I noted, in this piece, that I am not much good at medical chat. My memory is fine when it comes to things like biographical detail and conversation recall but medical information rarely stays in my mind for long. It might be a good thing. As that earlier piece noted: “Maybe it’s… Continue reading Word of the week: Hyperplasia
I have been using laptops for most of my computing needs for over 15 years. Before that I always had desktops: keyboard, mouse, tower, screen. Although I am right-handed I ended up using a mouse with my left hand. I had some issues with my right shoulder about 20 years ago, linked to how I… Continue reading A dodgy touchpad
The word “nosebleed” has not appeared on this Blog until now. I find the Search option on this site very useful. Sometimes I am about to draft something that has been playing on my mind and find that I have already drafted and posted it, maybe years earlier. But there’s been nothing so far about… Continue reading Nosebleeds
To some extent this Blog acts like a diary. It’s not a diary that’s updated every day, but the date of each post is relevant. Sometimes I “back-fill” pieces days, or even months, after the event. I am doing it now, posting this piece for Christmas Day 2022 several weeks into 2023. I do the… Continue reading Here we go again (Covid Round 2), and diaries
I offer a simple piece of dietary advice to anyone whose circumstances allow them to follow it: mix your grains. Or, more accurately, mix the carbohydrates in your diet so that you are not eating the same grain or starchy vegetable more than two meals running. If you have no choice regarding grains and starchy… Continue reading A Farewell to Oatiflakes
Loose threads, dead ends, unfinished stories. Welcome to my world, or more specifically welcome to the world of items on this Blog that need updating. The one that comes to mind right now is here (“Summer bodies are made in spring”). It recorded my first six weeks’ worth of trips to a local swimming pool,… Continue reading The £307 Swim
Earlier this month I was caught up in vivid memories of the summer of 1982, time spent on a building site in Ickenham and at the Renoir Cinema in Russell Square watching Fassbinder movies, as described here. I had intended to write about a rusty nail, and I return to the subject now. After our… Continue reading A rusty nail
The Compartments 