Well if our pre-op lives were characterised by busyness then after last week you might say normality has returned. True with my prostate operation still to come I’m not back to complete pre-op normality but I’ll return to this aspect of my retirement life later.
For now let me describe the last few days. We went to the theatre on Thursday (as I mentioned briefly in my last blog). We went to see The Mousetrap , the longest continuous running play ever (in London) at The Grand Theatre. There are two comments I’d like to make about this. First, The Grand might look great but for a man recovering from a cancer op it is bloody uncomfortable. Second, as a great fan of Agatha Christie and her plotting, this purpose-written play (as opposed to her books) was quite boring. Sorry but there it is and yes it’s true that my concentration isn’t what it was but I don’t think it needed to be. The main thing though is that I did it.
The other thing I did was go to a restaurant before the theatre. Some kind of Italian but once again I have to say that the pleasure I got from the meal was in meeting the challenge rather than the food, but there we are, it’s all part of the rehabilitation – coping with physical discomfort and I’ll say no more about that. Use your imagination. But I will just say a big thank you to my daughter and her husband who arranged it all and without whom this big step would not have happened.
By the way I’m writing this while watching England play New Zealand at cricket on the TV. The players are all wearing black arm bands to commemorate the death of one of their colleagues / friends. He died of bowel cancer. Nuff said.
On Wednesday we took an Australian visitor to the David Hockney gallery in Saltaire. The only realistic vehicle space –wise was the Land Rover. Only I could drive that vehicle and it was hard work (the clutch is a nightmare for a fit person, for me, well it was a struggle). But this was another challenge met and another reference to our previous life.
Then at the weekend there was a phone call to my neighbour (with his vineyard) up at our vineyard. He’d been over to our vineyard to assess the potential yield. I’d already decided that my health did not permit any picking this year, so I rather hoped we hadn’t got much of a crop at this point. Sod’s law of course thought otherwise. Typical when you really want a good crop you get a bad one and then like this year when you’d be content not to have any crop at all you get a good one.
As I say, typical. On the basis of this assessment I’ve ordered three stainless steel tanks. Total cost more than a thousand pounds, of which my neighbour will pay half for when his grapes come on stream (maybe two years hence). Whether I start my separate vineyard blog again I don’t know. Time and my health will tell, but it looks like normality will return to the vineyard this year even though I didn’t want it to. Ha, go figure.
The other phone call I made today was trying to get in contact with the surgeon about my TURP (prostate) operation. I’m beginning to change my mind about this course of action and I need to talk to him about my concerns. I’ll keep you informed about how this develops in later blogs. For now just let me say it’s more busyness.
Finally, I have written that the most challenging aspect of my former life to return to was going to be the music. Well I got an email from the leader of the Leeds Folk Fiddle group inviting me back to the first rehearsal this coming Thursday. I might even go although I admit I’m definitely lacking in confidence when it comes to this part of my life. I hope I don’t bottle out of going, but you (and I) will have to wait and see how this works out. As always I will keep you informed. Meanwhile my search for normality goes on.