And then I realised what had happened. The elasticated puttees were doing their job, pushing the fluid in the lower legs upwards, right into the knee where the genouillaire<\/em> was stopping it going any higher, and the knee area had swollen more than the capacity of the elasticated stretch in the genouillaire<\/em>.<\/p>\n So in the end I took that off too and the pain slowly began to subside. Not completely because there’s still some kind of pain there as I found out when I went to put the cream on my legs this evening.<\/p>\n And what with one thing and another, and once you make a start you’ll be surprised how many other things there are, I just lay there in agony and watched the clock going round and round until the alarm went off.<\/p>\n That was the signal for me to fall out of bed and take my blood pressure. 15.7\/10.1 this morning, which is not bad at all for a nuit blanche<\/em> – a night with no sleep. I did remember to take it before going to bed last night, and it was 17.2\/12.2, which is also not bad for a body wracked with pain.<\/p>\n To give you some idea of that I meant the other day about “not knowing what day of the week it is” I forgot to make my Friday bread. I remembered my medication (which I forgot last night) but was then busy tidying up everything ready for the nurse, like rolling up correctly these puttee things ready to apply.<\/p>\n Incidentally, if you want to know about my night’s routine after I finish my notes and before I go to bed, it’s <\/p>\n The days when I could finish work and just fall into bed are long-gone.<\/p>\n So fighting off wave after wave of sleep, sometimes unsuccessfully, I made a start on work. <\/p>\n With nothing on the dictaphone to distract me I spent a while reviewing my order for LeClerc and being reasonably satisfied that there was as much on there that I could order of what I needed I sent it off.<\/p>\n It’s a shame that they don’t carry a full stock in the home delivery part of the supermarket. There’s tons of stuff that I would like that isn’t available and I have either to make do, send my faithful cleaner or else do without.<\/p>\n But be that as it may, beggars can’t be choosers. if I’d had this illness a couple of years ago or otherwise stayed in the Auvergne I wouldn’t have had anything.<\/p>\n The Auvergne was beautiful and I loved every minute of the time that I lived there. But it was simply not a practical proposition when I was ill. <\/p>\n For a start, with winters as cold as -20\u00b0C and snow for as long as 7 months of the year, if you wanted to heat your house you had to go into the forest with your chainsaw and find a convenient tree<\/p>\n Imagine trying to do that now. It was great fun when I was healthy and fit but had I stayed down there I’d have been pushing up the daisies for a long time.<\/p>\n We had the usual interruptions. Isabelle the nurse came round to put the cream on my feet and wind up my puttees. She wasn’t very happy with me, but neither was I to be honest. The night had been awful and I really must have been on some other planet somewhere<\/p>\n And then my cleaner appeared with what she had managed to prise out of the chemist’s. And that wasn’t everything that I needed either. Some of the stuff has had to be ordered but when it will arrive is anyone’s guess. I told my cleaner not to be in a rush. Things will be done when they’ll be done.<\/p>\n After lunch the order from LeClerc arrived. No carrots to dice up or freeze today but there was a pepper to clean out before I could freeze it. And they had some of my favourite breaded quorn fillets that I like so much. There’s a good supply of those now, which is good news.<\/p>\n There was the question of putting away the stuff but I now have so much that there isn’t anywhere to put it. Yes, the freezer, fridge and shelves are bursting with food and that’s exactly how I want them to be. It’s important that I keep things stocked up because I never know when I might need them and not be able to obtain them.<\/p>\n The rest of the day, when I wasn’t asleep, was spent editing some more of the backlog of notes and preparing a programme. That’s all done now and I’ve even chosen the final track and written the notes. When I find a quiet moment, and I’ve not fallen asleep, I’ll dictate everything that’s outstanding and ten I’ll have another pile to edit and build up.<\/p>\n It’s non-stop, isn’t it?<\/p>\n Tea tonight was vegan nuggets with chips and a vegan salad. All extremely delicious of course. No-one can fault the meals that are served up in this place.<\/p>\n And they better hadn’t, as word on the streets is that there might be a few people round to eat some of it very shortly, and I’m not talking about our usual travel group either, but more visitors. I seem to be quite popular these days.<\/p>\n But not popular enough to be able to delegate these tasks to someone else. I have to do them so I’d better press on.<\/p>\n And then go to bed and hope for some pleasant dreams at the moment, I feel like Barbara Follett, who walked out of her life after writing "My dreams are going through their death flurries. They are dying before the steel javelins and arrows of a world of Time and Money"<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n It’s not the world of Time and Money though. They are just dying of old age, like me. <\/p>\n Still, as my hero the Irish politician Boyle Roche once said, "The best way to avoid danger is to meet it plump."<\/em><\/strong> so I shall ride forth to meet my destiny. "Follow one’s own star, wherever it leads"<\/em><\/strong> as Jacqueline de Bellefort said.<\/p>\n So if all of these pains subside, I might even manage some sleep. And then we shall see what we shall see.<\/p>\n\n
