Hello Everyone. Pleased to hear all in NZ are ok and the Gramaretto enjoyed the trip to Cambridge. Although we’re only 40 miles away I haven’t been there for years. Always preferred Norwich for shopping but as with all cities so many shops have closed and somehow shopping isn’t the same.
We’re having a medical and recreational week. Can see I’m going to be shattered by the end of it! Had physio here this morning. She went and 15 mins later a friend arrived. She stayed for over 2 hours and lovely as it was to chat for so long I was worn out when she went! Tomorrow morning I have an MRI on my head to see if I still have a brain! Doesn’t feel much like it at the moment. Not looking forward to the MRI but has to be done. Weds I see an Accupuncturist although I don’t think the Accupuncture is doing much good but I’ll give it a bit longer. Thursday physio again then friends round in the afternoon. Fri morning coffee with friends and then GP in the afternoon. Sat morning DH has a pacemaker check at the hospital! Phew!
Doodle hope you’re getting some better nights. Going without sleep is not good. Cherry hope you are doing well too and your football team are winning every match!
Have a nice glass of wine next to be brought by Jeeves - also known as DH. Poor man must be worn out doing just about everything. Bless him he’s a gem.
Has anyone heard from Nfk? Hope things are as well as can be with them.
Well I will drink my wine and complain that there’s nothing to watch on TV and whinge about my MRI tomorrow!
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Hello firdaus19 how lovely to meet you, I hope you stay with us if you can.
I'm a Paul Gallico fan as well and have Libby, in fact it's the only way I can read these days.
The Snow Goose was wonderful but heart-breaking too.
Oh Grammaretto that architecture, isn't it just wonderful?
You sound relaxed and happy - just what you need and deserve. 
No, not a knitted dog but a scheme I've just discovered, a sort of, 'rent a dog' for people who are out all day so why get a rescue dog? and their pet needs company and affection.
More later....
I too was wondering about Nfk, Jan and Missedout and hoping for good news.
I am reading a fascinating book at the moment. The Book of Roads and Kingdoms not everyone's cuppa but definitely mine.
www.harpercollins.com.au/9780733342592/the-book-of-roads-and-kingdoms
I even learned that Charlemagne's advisor, close friend and mentor, Alcuin (whom Charles said was the most learned scholar in the world) was a Yorkshireman!
Yes, I think Gubbins will like her wee bag - my problem is to hold back until distant Easter - I want to give them now!
The pics are Alcuin who looks tall and handsome in his statue but squat and dumpy in the illustrated manuscript. 
I'm pleased that the party was a great success and your DBiL enjoyed it, reading between the lines I think you did too, I hope so. What a beautiful day you had for capturing that gorgeous photo of the bridge of signs Grammaretto 😍
Shame nobody there at the Quaker meeting remembered your mum, that would have been nice. Those there do sound like a nice group of people though.
I love a wander around a gallery, what galleries did you visit? I haven't been to Cambridge for many years, I'd love to visit the Fitzwilliam Museum again.
My telephone appointment with my neurologist is in April Grammaretto.
Not sure I'd trust Jeeves' (sorry Jeeves) footballing advice unless he can perform an actual miracle Doodle 🤣.
Only being up once last night does sound better but Doodle you and your DH must be worn out all the same. I hope you have another decent or indeed better night tonight x
Ah Kaimoana it is amazing isn't it, the fact that this planet spins at 1000 miles an hour and without realising it, except when we look up, we are hurtling round at pace (and through space). We live on one tiny planet in the sea of space with a billion billion stars ... that is amazing.
I had my repeat eye test today which gave the same result as the first and apparently the prescription is correct 
. I couldn't see properly with the lenses though, very peculiar 🤔 I was told today however, something that I wasn't told when I had my eye test on the 10th - I have cataracts developing in each eye. I've decided to keep my old lenses and they rang to see if they could get me the same frames that I've got already. They've been ordered now so I'll soon be able to give my old ones the send off they deserve 😊
I may or may not have a solution (other than my eye drops) Cherry
Use your old glasses if it feels easier BUT please try to keep using the new ones as well - possibly when you are just resting rather relying on them.
'Why?' you ask, looking daggers in the direction of NZ.
Daggers are not good for the eyes either, by the way. 
When you get new glasses, unless the prescription is identical (nd even then it still happens), your eyes play up because your brain perceives something different.
Of course we say it's the eyes - but what controls our eyes?
It's the same with most things. If your brain is used to a pattern, it gets into a groove and you have to gradually break it of the habit. That is what's happening to Jan at the moment (I think).
As well as physio for the physical, muscular aspect, she will probably be doing exercises to re-pattern the damaged areas of her brain to persuade the undamaged areas to take over.
The brain is plastic and can easily do this (easy for the brain not for us as it takes time)
Does any of this make sense?
Your glasses won't feel right at first but you have to re-pattern the old grey matter. Show it who's boss
If you are only just developing cataracts, that shouldn't affect your eyes yet, just a bit misty.
When we all go over to telephone consultations with our GPs, how will the doctor listen to our hearts or palpate our tummies, or in my case, use the otoscope to diagnose my otitis media?
There's probably an app!!
Everyone but Jan, feel free to skip this post
Dear Jan you're not moaning, you are expressing justifiable doubts and fears – you’re allowed.
Re-patterning: I first knew of this in 1956 when my mother joined a re-patterning team.
They went to a brain-injured little boy who was under the care of IAHP (https://iahp.org/about)
who believed, decades before it was a proven fact, that the undamaged parts of the brain could be persuaded, by phyical actions, to take over from the damaged ones.
It had begun with adult stroke victims but went on to help brain-hurt children.
How? By daily (at least) exercises. Mum’s team worked for months, in relays,"making" the little chap crawl by manipulating his limbs in those motions. He thought it was great fun.
He had been inarticulate and inert in bed until this therapy started and over the first year he learned to move his legs then crawl, not without help at first.
Eventually, he became a confident happy child, walking, talking and at school.
He had been injured at 2 years, I think and the re-patterning took 5 years but for him and his parents, well worth it.
The programme, begun 20 years before, was in its infancy in UK.
It may have changed but it's still going strong and has helped thousands of children and adults.
The philosophy behind it? If you could make the body mimic what it would do if the brain had not been injured, it will teach the brain how to do it all again, by using undamaged brain cells.
You’ve seen a little of this when you were (probably) forced to try walking and other actions.
It's laborious, tedious and needs huge amounts of perseverance.
I'm guessing most post-stroke patients get too tired and fed up and almost certainly have little or no support to encourage them to keep at it. You have an amazing partner who keeps you working at it and that's a key factor to success.
But it takes time. Stick with it dear Jan you are already heaps better than you were.
Have you been put in touch with others in your situation so you can encourage one another? That works for some people.
Okay, normal service will now be resumed, please tune to your usual channel.
There's a huge amount of data on how noise is fatiguing.
It's been studied in the workplaces, cities, sports venues, supermarkets and mall (music you can't get away from)and other environments.
Unsurprising that a noisy MRI does the same.
It's not healthy sleep though but brain-fag, a neurological protective mechanism.
Some researchers have even said that having TV and/or radio on all day at home can be detrimental, especially to the development of the brain in young children, affect the ability to learn.
The flickering TV screen is also proven to be harmful as it jumps from scene to scene every second or so, leading to a reduced capacity to focus and remember.
So coupled with the constant noise........ 
I'd use that as my excuse for my memory problems if I'd ever had a TV but I knew all this when my children were small.
I'll try not to post for the rest of the week, I seem to be overwhelming this thread 
Sorry about that chocolate 🍫 Doodle. It must have got lost in the post but a rich tea is more appropriate for Lent.
Thanks for your kind messages for my poorly rellies. I am hopeful that DGD will get better but not so certain about DMiL.
She is still in the old house which lacks all the special things such as her chair and new bed but they are fortunate that it's not been sold.
Everyone was pleased about the deeds and we were trying to decipher them. Lots of archaic legal terms, and Scots at that, but the map shows the boundary clearly.
Your mention of being noise sensitive reminds of the train journey.
A baby who continually wailed apart from when it was asleep and a group of very loud, sweary, rather drunk girls who got off in Newcastle, thankfully. Next to me was a food inspector. I immediately thought of Basil Fawlty and asked him if he'd ever been bribed or ever found rats. He said no to both.
I'm having vanilla rooibos again. I think it helps me to sleep. Tomorrow is another day.In the words of Rhett Butler
I'm a bit sad tonight.
You remember my good friend Rangi? She went to visit family in Melbourne at Christmas. While she was there, her son flew to NZ, gave notice on her elder's flat and packed it up.
She's in her 80's, fiercely independent and not entitled to health care in Oz, so this cannot have been her choice. I shall miss her.
Then another friend died very suddenly on Tuesday; I heard about it today.
He was the photographer for all the events we old codgers go to, as well as being the official photographer for the major cultural festivals here.
His pictures were also used in children's books.
A funny, kindly man who got along with everyone, he was made homeless in 2021 when a tornado irreparably damaged his home.
Another house was built on the site and he moved in just 5 months ago.
Thank you all.
My reliable therapy is always in the kitchen (no, not the booze ) so I made a spiced fruit loaf which DS and Gubbins will probably slice and butter tomorrow.
We'd planned to go to West Lynn Gardens to see the butterflies but it began raining yesterday evening and hasn't stopped since. There's a little lightning bolt and raindrops on the Met Service icon for Saturday.
www.westlynngarden.org.nz/index2.html
I am content for Vince, he was taking photos at the time and just died. An ideal way tost go but devastating for his family.
I'm not so sanguine about Rangi but there's nothing I can do. No one even has an address for her.
To balance the scale.
We have a hardware store chain here from whom I tried to buy and pay for a small, folding table online, to be delivered.
The form wouldn't let me, it needed a mobile phone number. I'd don't have one. I sent a message. 'Try again' said CS.
I did. Same result. I told them not to worry, I'd go to their rivals.
(I'd already been - didn't like their tables )
I got an immediate email from a Manager asking which table I wanted and telling me it would be delivered free. Excellent.
When it arrived yesterday, I asked the young chap how I was going to pay for the table if the form wouldn't advance to payment options without a cell number.
He said, 'You don't need to, the table is free as well.'
The company who runs the rent-a-dog scheme also gave me free, full membership because I wrote such a good profile!!
Sometimes the world loves me
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