Visit to Kings College Chapel

Kings College Chapel

Living not far from Cambridge it is all too easy to take for granted the wonderful places on our doorstep that people travel around the world to see. Being "locals" were can get into Kings with a photo-card that costs just £7 for 3 years. Being OAPs (old age pensioners) we can do a free " park and ride" into the city saving diesel and parking dues. Getting from the park and ride stop to Kings is about 0.5 miles walk each way, which even with my wobbliness I could manage.

Kings is a truly inspiring building on the edge of the River Cam finished in the reign of Henry VIII. There is a great sense of peace inside. The fan vaulted ceilings have to be seen to be believed. It is of course from here that the world famous "Nine Lessons and Carols" are broadcast each Christmastide. People queue for seats at this in the rain, and sometimes snow, for up to 30 hours! I have attended sung Evensong there in the past without queuing.

My wife wandered down to the river to get a few more photos whilst I stayed in Kings. At this time of the year there are fewer visitors than in high summer. Cambridge also attracts English language students especially in summer.

Punts near Kings

If you have never visited Cambridge you are in for a pleasant  surprise when you do. Be sure to walk around the Backs (area adjoining River Cam around the colleges , visit Trinity College, Kings College and St John's College. A walk along Trinity Street is also worth doing.

Cambridge feels more rural than Oxford in my opinion. The town still feels "old fashioned" academic even though many of the new high-tech companies are on the edge of the newer city. Many of these spun off from university research. Heffers (Trinity St) has a wide selection of academic books down in its large basement sections.

.

Normality

Brahms' German Requiem  - CCS - March 22nd 2014, 
West Rd Concert Hall, Cambridge

When unwell, you almost forget what "being normal" is.  Last night I was given a lift to my wife's Brahms concert and most people were totally unaware of my current disabilities.  I am gradually on the mend,  but my biggest issue is wobbliness on walking or doing any activity.  Many (most)  people are totally unaware of this. I hope my brain rewires so this goes with time.

Our good old friends Peter and Chris Branson, came to stay over the weekend and it was them who gave me the lift to the concert. Peter kindly cut our hedges and front lawn and did a pile of weeding (without being asked) - such GOOD kind and generous friends.

See  https://sites.google.com/site/cambschoral/  for details of the Cambridgeshire Choral Society (CCS) including how to join and details of other concerts you might enjoy.

BTW, my wife is the 7th in on the LHS. She is the short lady with short greyish hair (now I am in trouble!) in the 2nd row back.

Brahms - German Requiem

See - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_German_Requiem_%28Brahms%29

This evening at 7.30pm, my wife sings in the Brahms German Requiem at the West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge. She sings with the Cambridgeshire Choral Society.  This is a splendid work and well worth hearing. Tickets are available on the door.

Se also https://sites.google.com/site/cambschoral/

Most of the Requiem was written around 1868.  It is so sad that some 50 years later Germany, the UK and many other countries were busy killing each other in millions in WW1. I am still convinced we all drifted into WW1 not realising what it was going to be like. 

This Brahms choral work towers above the madness of WW1,  50 years away still when written. To this day I think of Germany as a cultured and great nation. WW1 and WW2 were aberrations that sadly can affect any nation depending on who is in power.  That is the tragedy of all wars.

The music of Brahms, Wagner and many others reminds us that music has the power to transcend human frailty and tower over us putting wars into true perspective: after the fighting should come true peace and reconciliation.

Gardening at new house

Lucien clearing autumn leaves

We moved into a bungalow (about same space inside as the old house) just 4 weeks before I had my stroke and was then in hospital for months. Luckily we had the bungalow extensively renovated and it was decorated before we moved in. The garden is easier to maintain than at the old house, but nonetheless we have 2 biggish lawns and a long hedge to cut. Thankfully my sons have helped and my wife is getting used to the lawn-mower! I hope to tackle some of the hedge next week weather and health permitting.

The long bed in the back garden

Feeling better

My stroke recovery continues. After an "up and down" week things are looking up: food is going down fine as are drinks and people tell me my voice is sounding stronger. All positive signs.

I still feel very wobbly when walking or exercising and this currently is my biggest issue. People tell me my recovery could take a long while yet  so I have to remain very patient. Also, people say I must expect bad days as well as good. Fatigue after doing almost anything is an issue.

After a poor start this week, when I felt I was slipping backwards, I feel full recovery should be possible given time.

See http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/stroke/Pages/treatment.aspx  .

Burwell Windmill

The official opening of the restored windmill (right next door to our home) is April 13th 2014. The windmill now has 4 sails again and it has been fully restored both inside and out . It is a credit to all those who worked on it.

See http://www.burwellmuseum.org.uk.btck.co.uk/StevensMill for more details of the mill and museum which has some amazing exhibits.

Budget - Spring 2014

Although I have not had chance to study it in detail, the 3 year 4% pensioners bond for up to £10000 each looks good. It means my wife and I can get 4% return with low risk on £20000 of joint savings. This is above inflation and a much better rate than competitors. It runs from 2015. Also promising is the new NISA  allowing up to £30000 (joint income) to be sheltered from tax each year starting in July 2014.

Ely

Every week for the next 8 weeks I am attending physio (for my stroke) at the Prince of Wales hospital in the city of Ely.  This was once an RAF hospital.

Ely is a delightful place with a cathedral 1300 years old (LHS). My wife walks into town during my sessions. As a local parishoner she gets free entry too. Down by the river Ouse is lovely too and the market , although small, is delightful.

Years ago, during WW2, my dad (see RHS) had his appendix removed in the old Bishop's Palace in Ely (RHS).  He flew Lancaster bombers (see below) in the Pathfinders and was very lucky to survive the war. He crash landed once on the way home. He rarely spoke of his WW2 experiences: I think he did not really like the idea of helping to kill innocent civilians. He was much happier living his simple rural life in Devon after the war years . Wars are so bad for everyone on all sides. It humbles me to realise how young he was in those days: 20-26yrs old only. In the last months of the war he had a young child too. I never realised how brave he was until it was too late to tell him.

The Bishop's Palace,which dates back to the 15th century, was a Sue Ryder home, but since 2012 has been the home for the Kings School's 6th form.

http://www.newsbiscuit.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/lancaster-bomber1-300x200.jpg

Fake coins

Apparently 3% of  pound coins in circulation are fakes i.e. forgeries. Next year (2017) a new 12-sided 1 pound coin is to be introduced to all but eliminate fakes. Not sure if the 2 pound coin is being replaced too?

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-2663286 .

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/73667000/jpg/_73667988_73667987.jpg

Junk mail

Don't know about you, but I am fed up with junk mail that typically is around 50-80% of the post we get nowadays. I know this is how the Royal Mail bolsters its profits, but what a waste!

In our case it goes straight into the recycling bin and does not even get opened often. If the post was properly nationalised they would not need to deliver this crap. It saddens me to think jobs depend on the delivery of such rubbish. Better these people were employed in something productive actually adding real value to things. This is the sort of work that really adds no value to the lives of decent people. Such worthless work cannot continue for too long into the future. In time all work will add real value.

Although signed up to the Telephone Preference Service it does not seem to stop calls starting in the UK but coming in via foreign numbers. Overall I still think it is a "good idea".

10m Antenna Effectiveness

One of my hobbies is amateur radio.

Comparing my 10m (28MHz) signals with those of others, I suspect my antenna may be down in effectiveness compared with better optimised systems. My 2W is equivalent to 200mW from the better equipped stations. When fitter (my darn stroke) I may try changing the 10m antenna for something better. A vertical 1/2 wave would be less directional on transmit but might be noisier on receive.

At the present time, my poor state of health is preventing me doing too much outdoors. For example, climbing a ladder  is quite out of the question, so I have to live with the antennas I have.

Bored with routine (stroke)

I am tied to my liquid feed for 7.25hrs a day: food fed directly into my stomach through what they call a peg feed. Luckily I can disconnect this if we go out for a walk but I am in my chair most of the day.  Although I now also eat food and drinks by mouth, these don't always go down too well. I am still trying to work out what affects this. Breakfast Weetabix and banana are the best and easiest to eat, maybe because I am less tired?

To be honest, my stroke is getting me down: same routine, still unable to be free of the peg feed and still feeling so giddy and exhausted after the smallest amount of physical exertion - it gets me down. I battle on in the hope of better times ahead.

Normality seems a distant dream: I long to do the things I used to do and to be able to eat and drink as I was once able to.

Crimea - Russian?

The West's attitude on Crimea is puzzling.

Until 1954 it WAS part of Russia until the then Russian leader "gave"  it to Ukraine, then part of the USSR. Since then it has had special status, is filled with mainly Russian speakers, and  is home to the Russian Mediterranean fleet.  In many ways it still seems like part of mother Russia.

Why not let Crimea rejoin Russia if that is what its people want?

The case of mainly eastern Ukrainian states is more difficult, but I feel even these should go to Russia if its occupants want this. A western looking Ukraine, mainly Ukrainian speaking, may well be smaller than the nation is currently.

The Ukraine should NOT be an excuse for a new Cold War or even WW3. We sleep-walked into WW1 remember. The Russians are being portrayed as the bullies here and this is not the full truth.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine .

Some Ukrainians have long memories of Soviet domination and starvation back in the bad days of the 1920's. It is easy to see why Ukraine has little trust in Russia today.  Russia needs to act in a statesman like way here and not be seen as a big, ignorant bully.

Mercury - planet

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_%28planet%29 .

According to the latest NASA mission Mercury is shrinking as it continues to cool. There are active chemicals on the surface and ice in craters at the poles.Altogether,this planet nearest our sun, is more interesting than once thought.

Pauline's Swamp - Burwell

Pauline's  Swamp - Burwell

This afternoon the March weather was glorious with temperature approaching 18 deg C.  For the first time we visited Pauline's Swamp, a small nature reserve off Reach Road that is maintained and owned by the local Parish Council.  There are clearly lots of wild flowers there and, right now, plenty of clumps of daffodils. Altogether it was a nice find. We will go there again. It was rather obscure and not easy to find. The entrance is about 100m further down Reach Road (on the left) after the fire station.

See http://www.torrens.org.uk/NatHist/PAWL/Burwell/swamp.html .

Stroke recovery pattern

My all too slow recovery from my brain bleed (stroke) continues but I seem to have a pattern: some days go well and I think I am getting better then this is followed by a lousy day when the food and drink don't go down and my body is just a tired and wobbly mess.

Today was one of those "off" days and I also felt tired most of the day, a tiredness that cuts one to the very core - more like M.E. than just any old tiredness. The trouble is it gets my wife down too, but it is SO hard to smile and be cheerful when inside I feel so very ill with nausea, and poor balance - I feel like I've just had 8 pints of beer whenever I stand and the smallest physical task exhausts me.

Let us hope the rest of the week is much better.

Weather - odd

Weather is a funny business: this winter in the UK has been the wettest on record with several places badly impacted by flooding. Here we have had no floods, no snow and only a couple of mild frosts. In the last few winters we have managed a few weeks of snow and several quite heavy frosts.

At the moment, snowdrops are now dying off,daffodils are fully out and even oilseed rape is starting to flower,which is 4-6 weeks early.

In the USA, it has been extremely cold - all because of a shift in the jet stream.  It is probably too soon to say if this is all down to climate change, although I suspect it is. Our climate IS changing but the jury is out on whether this is Man's doing or natural variations.

Opinions?

Body Mass Indicator

During my hospital stay I lost 1.5 stone in weight but have been recovering since. My dietician says I am already at my "right" weight and should now try to maintain this, reducing the liquid feed by 100ml every 2 weeks if my weight is not falling. I am liquid fed by a peg in my stomach for 7.25 hours a day but also eat some solid food and drinks by mouth now, thankfully.

This was the result of  my BMI calculation today. My weight is exactly 11 stone (naked) and I am 5' 8.5" tall.

Your BMI is 23.1, which means you are in the healthy weight range.

BMI calculator results - what do they mean?

• Less than 18.5 = underweight

• 18.5-24.9 = healthy weight

• 25-29.9 = overweight

• 30 or greater = very overweight or obese

See: http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/Healthyweightcalculator.aspx if you need/want to calculate your own BMI.

Religious propaganda

Recently I seem to be getting several "comments" that can best be described as "religious propaganda" that bear very little or no relevance to the actual post. Please be aware that I am highly likely to DELETE such rubbish. I hold my own religious/moral views and don't need fanatics to help me, thank you.

My recent stroke has been a wake-up call and I have really found out what true love and kindness is. Some people have been exceptionally kind to me and I shall be forever grateful to them. The so called religious comments are of zero relevance. Don't post such comments again please Steve Finnell and others.

Feeing a bit better

This morning I woke feeling nearly normal, no sick feeling, no nausea, just "near normal", despite my stroke. Getting out of bed I still felt wobbly on my legs and I knew things were far from right, but I do feel positively better.  I'd now rate myself 50% of normal rather than 45%. I feel less tired too. I have avoided pills so far today and will continue this unless I go downhill.  Praise be!

For several days, before this morning I was beginning to feel I was sliding backwards on my journey of recovery. It is horrible feeling one is losing the battle.Today I feel strong again to carry on again on the battle to full health. Do not give up!

Landwade, Nr Exning

Today, in the sunshine, Lis and I did our annual walk at Landwade, near Exning.

Plenty of snowdrops, aconites and daffodils around and NO people apart from us.

Because of my stroke we took a slightly different route to avoid climbing stiles and gates.  My walking stick is behind the tree trunk.

This is the view outside the little church,which is sadly locked these days.

Stroke ( continued)

The after effects of my stroke continue.

My walking is definitely getting better and I no longer need a Zimmer frame. Outside of home I carry a stick more for reassurance as I can get around just about without. Inside home I can manage without even the stick. My main problem is balance which is still impaired. It is slowly getting better but still far from OK.

Swallow also seems to be improving  with a better tolerance of foods by mouth.  Touch wood, I have not suffered any problems with food going down the wrong way (aspiration).

Other issues are fatigue and clumsiness:  simple things tire me very easily, including talking. I am still awaiting news from the DVLA about my driving licence, but I am likely to be banned (because of the head injury) for 12 months.

I also suffer from a degree of sickness and nausea during the day which is helped with Domperidone pills (20mg x 3 times a day).I am on 8 hrs a day liquid feed but manage a Weetabix and banana for breakfast and soft foods by mouth lunch and teatime. I drink tea or coffee with thickener several times in the day.

I already have a blue disabled badge.

Physio takes place as an out-patient in Ely Hospital most weeks with the speech and language lady visiting me at home every few weeks. The physio man at Ely is excellent (Sam Yovan).

Mentally and physically, apart from the issues above I am in good shape.

In 6 months I hope to be back to full health. This is my definite aim and, based on progress to date, a real possibility.

Our windmill (next door)

Our local Burwell windmill is being fully restored thanks to a National Lottery grant. The video shows the 4 new sails in action and being tested today. The view is from our lounge window.

NHS Communications

As a person at the "receiving end" I am appalled by the poorness of NHS communications. It would appear that the UK NHS communicates, occasionally, by flags, bonfires and pigeons.

When will the NHS communicate between people inside and outside hospitals in MODERN ways e.g. scan barcodes into tablet PCs and databases shared throughout the healthcare industry? Others can do it. Wake up NHS or you DESERVE to fail. Clinical care has been good,but communications is a joke. Except it is no joke if you are not seen,miss scans or worse. I dread to think what it must be like to be 85 and with Altzeimers.

Living with a stroke

After 3.5 months in hospital I have now been home for 2 weeks. My walking is slowly improving, my swallow maybe a little better but the worst aspect is still feeling very giddy and unsteady when  moving.  Although I feel I am "on the mend" I must learn to take things a step at a time and not expect overnight miracles


UPDATE Jan 25th:  It is now 3 weeks since I have been home.The promised visits from the Community Stroke Team have NOT happened and I'm unable to contact them as their lines go unanswered or get disconnected. Do they even know about me? Yet again poor  NHS communication is the issue. They need to fix this fast.

Living beyond our means?

On the BBC website they report record UK new car sales in 2013. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25632668 .  Cheap credit? We will only get out of our current financial mess when we truly live within our means.

Stroke

For those who don't know, I have been in hospital since mid-September suffering with a bleed on my brain, in  effect a stroke. I hope to be home by Jan 6th. I continue to improve and may be  back to near normal later in 2014.

Never take "normality" for granted. I finally made it home, hopefully for good, on Friday Jan 3rd, although swallow, walking, speech and writing all still have a long way to go. I have to keep doing my exercises.

The UK and chemical weapons

OK, it was over 70 years ago, but in WW2 we were, it seems, quite happy to consider the use of chemical weapons against the enemy then, the people of Nazi Germany. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Vegetarian.  In the event, these were not used, but clearly we had thought hard enough about using them to test them on a (not that) remote Scottish island.

It annoys me when the UK and USA behave so "high and mighty" against the use of chemical warfare when, even very recently, both nations actually used them in Iraq, Afghanistan and of course by the USA in Vietnam (Agent Orange).  Perhaps we learned that their use was a bad thing?

Carpets and stain protection

We recently bought a lot of new carpets for our new home from a major East Anglian supplier, Glasswells in Bury-St-Edmunds. All of these carpets had manufacturers stain protection or StainGard protection added before fitting.

Shortly after we moved in, we noticed a small mark on the lounge carpet so contacted the supplier to ask the best way to remove it: StainGard protection is supposed to allow easy removal of stains such as wine spills, coffee spills etc. Rather than advise how to treat the mark ourselves Glasswells arranged for the StainGard people to come out to take a look. This they did, and took several photos, but no action to remove the mark. A week or so later, Glasswells sent someone to look. Again, no attempt was made to clear the mark.

So, nearly a month after having the carpets fitted we have still to be told how to remove stains from our protected carpets. We have not even been given a leaflet telling us how to go about it!  Wouldn't you think that having spent many thousands of pounds on new carpets Glasswells would give us a leaflet on how to remove spills and stains and throw in a little carpet care kit too?  Instead, we have had 2 visits, no action, and no instructions after nearly a month. Unbelievable.

Further to this, I went to the shop recently to try to buy some material to make a bed throw that would match a couple of garden room chairs. On the phone, when checking with the supplier on the wholesale cost, I overheard "£8.60 a metre".  A moment later the salesman turned to me and said the price would be £17.99 a metre!

So, if you ask for discounts when buying a lot of carpets, furniture etc from a major supplier like Glasswells don't be embarrassed to ask for a LARGE discount. Oh, and don't forget to ask how to remove stains :-)

Overall, I am less than impressed.

UK parliament votes AGAINST military action in Syria

Last night, the UK parliament voted AGAINST military action in Syria. This is excellent news.

This does not mean the UK should take no action. What it signals is that the UK people don't want to meet violence with yet more violence. Instead let us encourage effective diplomacy. Jaw jaw, not war war is, ultimately, the ONLY way. Can anyone really say that our past military action in Afghanistan, Iraq or anywhere in the Middle East has ever done any long term good? No, what it has left is a trail of bitterness.