Month: August 2018

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The News From Saint Denis

The news from Saint Denis.

First the good news. After two weeks of coughing, feeling bad and being exhausted every afternoon and a week of antibiotics and three other medications I am on the mend.

However on the evening of Wednesday 15 August Aurelia slipped and fell. On Thursday morning at the Clinique Montreal Urgence they confirmed she had broken a bone (tibia) in her right leg in two places. They put her leg in a partial temporary plaster and told us to return in 10 days after the swelling reduced. On Thursday she slipped and fell again so back to the Urgence but fortunately no further damage. We have a nurse Olga visit every day and give Aurelia an injection to prevent blood clots due her being immobile. Since she is also Spanish her and Aurelia are now friends.

Aurelia having no confidence in the Clinique Montreal after some research we opted to try the Medipole clinic in Toulouse. Yesterday Sunday, leaving before noon to avoid the French masses returning from summer vacation, we went to Toulouse and stayed overnight in a hotel close to the Clinique Medipole. Aurelia had an early morning appointment set up by her local doctor. Today Monday we are back home after seeing a competent specialist / surgeon. No surgery required for now, the temporary partial cast was removed and a full permanent one put in place. No weight on the foot for 60 days and back to see him in another 10 days.

Next time you are in a supermarket pay attention to those couples you sometimes see but never pay much attention to, where one is pushing the other confined to a wheelchair. This is now Aurelia and myself.

Our nurse Olga keeps a few chickens and brings us eggs every week. They come with the date of original delivery she has marked in pencil, Olga not the chicken. You find your amusements where you can.

I thought old age would take longer, watch out for those stairs and steps.

Be well, do good things and please keep in touch.   John

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Too Old To Be An Acrobat, Too Young To Die

My apologies for the extended delay but we flew from Vancouver, BC to Silver Spring MD and after two days on here via Dulles and Frankfurt. This is the first time it has taken me literally weeks to recover.

Then to prove I am not getting any smarter I presumed the hot weather warnings for old people were for old people and not striplings like ourselves I went out an tried to tidy the garden a bit in the current heatwave. Resulting in 3 days in bed feeling terrible and with no appetite.

On Sunday evening Aurelia’s son arrived from outside Barcelona with his 8 year old daughter and 7 month old dog Rufus, as previously agreed, I had forgotten, left them with us for two weeks. With all the garden available around the house Rufus prefers above everything else digging up the tomato plants.

On looking back I don’t know how I became so addicted to podcasts. Living abroad, in my case where is abroad, for so many years I subscribed to the Manchester Guardian airmail edition, it was printed on lightweight airmail paper, and next to the then International Herald Tribune, now the International NYT, and my favourite writer at the time Art Buchwald.

Once ensconced in rural France I subscribed to a variety of periodicals, switching from one political perspective to another and between the UK and the US. I remember variously The Atlantic, The New Statesman, The Financial Times, The NYT, The Spectator, The Economist, The New Yorker, Harpers and recently back to the Guardian digital edition. But then I seldom watch TV.

But today I have been heavily editing down my list of podcasts, I am trying to get it down to 5. This brought about by another dear friend dying on Monday bringing home yet again the salutary warning that time is limited. So no explanation required on that front.

Apropos of nothing,

We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don’t know. W.H Auden

Stay well, stay healthy and please keep in touch, I always enjoy hearing from you.