{"id":21255,"date":"2026-06-29T20:18:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/?p=21255"},"modified":"2026-06-29T20:18:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:18:24","slug":"monday-29th-june-2026-another-dismal-desperate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/?p=21255","title":{"rendered":"
Monday 29th June 2026 – ANOTHER DISMAL, DESPERATE … <\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"

… day at dialysis is coming to an end, and you’ll be surprised to hear, just as I’m surprised to be telling you, that I’ve actually had a meal tonight. Or, at least, something that actually passes for food.<\/p>\n

But before I move on and tell you all about it, have you ever had one of those days when you’ve been working so intently that you haven’t noticed what time it is and you’re really surprised when you find out?<\/p>\n

It was one of those evenings last night. Before I finished my notes, I mentioned that I had one or two things to do later before going to bed. And so, once the notes were online, I made a start. The next thing that I knew, it was 23:55 and I was about to turn into a pumpkin. <\/p>\n

So I quickly closed everything down, went for my nighttime medication, and tidied myself up in the bathroom and it must have been about 00:30 when I finally crawled into bed. It’s been a long time since I was last up at that time. <\/p>\n

Going to bed late is something. Sleeping is something else completely, and I had another one of those nights where I wasn’t sure whether I was awake or asleep. It’s really weird, this situation and I don’t know how to explain it. You can’t imagine anything like it until it happens to you. <\/p>\n

One thing is certain though, and that is that I was definitely awake quite early. And when I finally had a look at the time, it was 06:21. And so I sat up in bed, put both feet on the floor and claimed an early start. <\/p>\n

Having both feet on the floor is not quite the same as being up and about, not by a good fifteen minutes, but eventually I was off to the bathroom for a good wash and shave in case I meet Emilie the Cute Consultant this afternoon.<\/p>\n

Back in here, I had a listen to the dictaphone, but as I have said before … "and on many occasions too" – ed<\/em> … if you don’t really go to sleep, you can’t really dream, can you?<\/p>\n

Not to worry. There are always plenty of other things to be doing to keep me busy, and in any case, Isabelle the Nurse was early today. She had had to take a blood sample at her office at 06:30 so rather than go back home and come back out later, she set off early on her rounds. <\/p>\n

She’s off now for a few days but back on Saturday as the holiday season begins to kick in. Then, it’s total chaos;<\/p>\n

After she left, I made breakfast and read some more of A HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE<\/a> by Charles Freeman.<\/p>\n

He’s still waxing lyrical about the delights of Gothic architecture and Greek buildings, despite his dismissive remarks about “post and beam” architecture at Stonehenge, etc., but now he’s taking a swipe at Roman architecture too. "Not that great genius, sometimes real beauty, is not displayed in many specimens of the REVIVED ITALIAN ; but as a style it is, except as a warning, completely valueless. It is, in the first place, open to every objection to which the Classical Roman is liable, and is besides loaded with every species of fantastic vagary, of which imperial Rome, amid her worst corruptions, had never dreamed."<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Whatever you might think about Roman architecture, this is surely going way too far. <\/p>\n

Back in here, there were things to do, but not as much as I thought; therefore, I reviewed the next radio programme and sent it off to be added into the stream, and then made a start on another one.<\/p>\n

Some music that I needed was really hard to find too and took quite a lot of tracking down, but I managed in the end and I think that I now have all that I need. This one should be quite an interesting one when it’s finished, whenever that might be. <\/p>\n

At midday, I went into the kitchen to sort myself out ready for dialysis, and my faithful cleaner turned up to apply the anaesthetic on my arm. We chatted for a while and then she wandered off while I waited for my taxi.<\/p>\n

And would you believe that I fell asleep while waiting? And not only that, I went off on a dream and I was well away with the fairies, although not in any manner that would excite comment from the editor of Aunt Judy’s Magazine. But then the taxi turned up, the driver rang the doorbell and the whole lot evaporated. <\/p>\n

The driver was fifteen minutes late and we had to go to Jullouville to pick someone else up too. Consequently, we were quite late arriving at dialysis. It wasn’t until 14:35 that I was finally connected.<\/p>\n

Emilie the Cute Consultant came to see me too. There wasn’t much fluid to extract today, but after she’d interrogated me about my health for a while, she wound the machine up. Then this three-hour session went to a different scale completely.<\/p>\n

No one really bothered me during the session so that I could work, and crash out for half an hour too. I was unplugged quite quickly at the end of the session as well, but having to go to drop someone else off in Sartilly on the way back meant that it was still 19:00 by the time that I was back. <\/p>\n

After my cleaner left, having helped me into the apartment, I made myself a bowl of pasta and veg in olive oil, black pepper and garlic, topped with grated cheese. I don’t know why, but I’ve been hankering after that all day. I must be pregnant or something, I suppose, although I don’t know how.<\/p>\n

But right now, I’m off to bed. It was a bad night last night and I’m hoping for something better tonight.<\/p>\n

But before I go, seeing as we have been talking about being pregnant … "well, one of us has" – ed<\/em> … a woman went to the doctor for a medical examination. When she went back for the results, he told her "I have to say, madam, that you are three months pregnant."<\/em><\/strong>
\n"Ohh no, it’s impossible"<\/em><\/strong> she cried. "I’ve never ever had relations with a man."<\/em><\/strong>
\nAt that, the doctor picked up his chair and went to sit outside.
\n"What’s the matter?"<\/em><\/strong> asked the woman.
\n"The last time that this happened, we had a star in the east and three wise men. I wasn’t born at that time but I’m not going to miss it this time around."<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

0<\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div>
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… day at dialysis is coming to an end, and you’ll be surprised to hear, just as I’m surprised to be telling you, that I’ve actually had a meal tonight. Or, at least, something that actually passes for food. But before I move on and tell you all about it, have you ever had one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10849,1710,12054,44,4507,1616,8571,3173,8597,16250,12057,16023],"tags":[16585,3501,8612,4788,13133,16586,5577,1302,5180,212,2482,2560,5565,8581,5911,8603,2484,15372,12058,13348,13920,1029],"class_list":["post-21255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-avranches","category-cleaner","category-doctor","category-dream","category-eric-hall-2","category-france","category-granville","category-hospital","category-jullouville","category-n6","category-nurse","category-sartilly","tag-a-history-of-architecture","tag-archive-org","tag-avranches","tag-bad-night","tag-bouquet-granvillais","tag-charles-freeman","tag-cleaner","tag-crash-out","tag-doctor","tag-dream","tag-early-start","tag-eric-hall","tag-france","tag-granville","tag-hospital","tag-jullouville","tag-late-night","tag-n6","tag-nurse","tag-pasta-and-vegetables","tag-sartilly","tag-taxi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21256,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21255\/revisions\/21256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}