Living in the UK again

It has been a busy day but unfortunately one of my visits to a neighbour got cancelled as she is not well, I hope she gets better soon. I drove for the first time in seven months, to visit another friend, she is recovering from an operation. I took it steady, it wasn’t far. My left foot felt strange, I stalled the car twice, clutch control not quite as it should be, but it was when I was parking. I had lunch at Sebastian’s, a very handy and well filled pulled pork wrap. The Cosy Nook opens on the second February.  I decided after driving back to the house to do a walk I do from the house, which takes you into the village, across the recreation ground and out onto the London Road. On the recreation ground was this Chatty Bench. From here after walking along a while, you take a footpath that leads to Ruscombe and the church, next to which is the allotment site where I used to have my plot. One of my friends has a plot there, it has a patch, which was cleared of brambles years ago and...

As our lodger said last night, it’s been a three day celebration of my birthday. Maybe sixty four is not so bad after all. When our lodger knew my friends and her brother were coming over, he said he wanted to cook us all a BBQ which is what he did. The meat had been marinating in the freezer for a few weeks. He had bought some fuel for the BBQ but unfortunately it must have been wet and would not light, so plan B, he had some wood to use instead. We helped by making the salad for him. We had the squashed potatoes as I call them and they were nice too. The meat was amazing, pork, so well cooked. I had made a lemon drizzle cake, so we had that for dessert.  The leg bandage has come off, the leg looks good, there is a bony bump where the break was, it looks a bit odd but I have been told it will dissipate after a while.  Here is the cake, I got the cooking time just right, it’s not over baked. I also drizzled the lemon juice and sugar into it, when it was warm which is best.

My friend from Sifnos has her brother with us for a few days. We had a lovely birthday meal last night, and our lodger joined us to celebrate. It’s funny after a while, the conversation flowed, lubricated by copious amounts of alcohol, and using a language translator we shared many thoughts, including the devastating effect of the war in  Ukraine many miles away. But also looking forward to when our lodger’s wife and daughter visit, even if it’s only for a few weeks, then to return, but to come back here on a permanent basis soon after. Tonight our lodger is cooking us a Ukrainian banquet, including Herrings under a fur coat. I made a lemon meringue pie for last night, it tasted good, but the topping had a funny dome like fragile crust! On the Saturday after a brief visit to friends down the road from here, we took the train to Marlow for a wander around. When the trains work, it a great service. It’s funny walking about in long trousers, my bandage hidden from view, people don’t g...

So after walking my favourite Chocolate Labrador today I went into the garden and deployed the cage as a support for a miniature rose in our garden. I got some chocolates from the Labrador’s family today, I could not receive them personally as I was in the shower standing up with my plastic ‘sock’ on to keep my left leg dry. My first proper shower in months. The bath board is now retired. After the shower I walked up to the dogs home and thanked them for my surprise treat.  It’s been a bit confusing for the dog today, as she normally goes out with her dog walker but today she got a freebie with me too. We did about three kilometres, she remembered that I usually give her three bits of carrot at the start of her walk, but she conveniently forgot she had them when I first arrived. It was really nice to take her out. I had a chat with one friend on Serifos today. I am speaking to another later on. Tonight we are going out to dinner to some friends, and tomorrow my Sifnos friend’s brot...

An early start this morning and off to the Royal Berks hospital, in our car expertly piloted by our lodger. I felt a bit nervous, but not overly so. The traffic was light at seven am and I was soon walking to the day surgery ward, to join the other patients, eagerly awaiting their operations. The whole process of being given a bed, vital sign checks, questions by the bucketload and then my consultant and the other doctor who works with him were meeting me, time to ask a few questions of my own. One of them marked with an arrow the leg with the cage on. I  met the anaesthesia doctor, and a few minutes later I was heading to the theatre, where I lay down on a theatre bed. A little while later I was drifting off, and woke later in the recovery suite minus the cage. My leg wrapped up, in a white bandage. Soon after I was wheeled back to the ward, where some toast and coffee was my breakfast. It was made clear to me that as soon as I had gone to that toilet, I could ring my lift for the...

It’s annoying when you start to make progress and then suddenly you get a jolt that drags you back to where you came from. I had seen that one of my leg pin sites was infected, I have been keeping it extra clean but the end of the  next day, my leg hurt a lot when I put it down, so bad that by early evening,  I had spoken to a GP and he said go to A and E asap. . Blood tests, X ray and then a meeting with orthopedic doctors who prescribed me antibiotics. When I got home, I did not have my sticks, so I hobbled into the house and retrieved them from the cupboard where I had hoped they would remain until I sent them back. It was quite late, so I went to bed. The next day, again more trouble putting the leg down. This carried on for several days, but by this time my friend from Sifnos was home, I had hoped to meet them at the airport, no chance of that. I felt very fed up, I had hoped to be able to show them how well I had come on. I did make dinner for us all and some blueberry m...

I went with an ex work colleague to visit another guy we both know, who had a life changing medical event, years ago. We do try and visit him when we can, which is not often enough, but is probably more often than others, not being critical of them of course. We usually share news and have a cup of tea, sometimes helping him with problems with his IT hardware. What is amazing, is his CD collection, his walls are covered in bespoke carpentry safely holding those plastic cases in perfect order. Such collections might seem odd in this streaming world, but it’s interesting to just dive in and see what you find. He has music from genres left, right, up and down the spectrum. I don’t think I would know a musician that he would not have heard of. He has introduced me to many artists, broadened my musical interests. When I was first hobbling around, in Greece, struggling away, I thought of our friend, and that I will get better if I work at it, he sadly has reached the end of his recovery road...

I had really hoped that I would not end up lying on the sofa again in the back room, as I did when I first got back here, plagued with UTI’s. But when I started aching all over, feeling tired and then the headache kicked in, I feared the worst! The second day, it was just the headache left, but it was terrible. It’s the closest thing I have  had to a migraine. It was like a series of pulsing jabbing sensations, that moved around my head. This went on all the time, it made it very hard to drop off to sleep. I did ring the doctor having tried all the pills available over the counter. The doctor made sure that there wasn’t a sign of a more serious condition I was suffering from. It is probably some kind of flu bug. There was an option, but with my current medication, these  pills could cause bleeding in the gut. I decided to take my chance, and not take the option of the pills,  in any case the head started to get better last night and has cleared up, just leaving me tired. ...

I was a bit worried about giving back the London puzzle to my neighbour, as it had the piece missing. So I sort of kept putting it off. But when it was time to hand out the  last of the Christmas  cake, I took the plunge and took it back. My neighbour who iced the cake and showed me how to do it next time had a piece, and the other neighbours including the puzzle lender. As it turns out the piece was already missing, thank goodness for that. I have also broke my previous record and done 6.5km in a day including walking in the house. I went to some friends in Charvil. I now have two bookings for dog sits this year, the chocolate Labrador up the road, and a new client, that is the lovely black Labrador I met at the Cosy Nook, that booking is for July. This is without even advertising. I decided to make the Battenburg cake, I now have the tin you use for baking it. I actually made two cakes as can be seen, the first pair of spongers were a bit flat and uneven, the second more imp...

I made some Rosemary, Parmesan and Sun Dried Tomato biscuits. They are quite nice, not much Rosemary taste, I used it from our garden. My lodger said they had an interesting aftertaste, he is still eating my excuse for a Madeira cake, he says it’s nice with Coca Cola! Maybe he should dunk it in it, to make it less dry! I have a few more items for cake making on order, including a Battenberg and Tray bake tins. I have also ordered food colouring, mixed colours as there is this multi layer cake with different colours. Cut open, it looks very dramatic.  Tuesday it really chucked it down, I did a load of admin things, and when it looked like it was drying out I went into the village. I got my pills and dressings, and the Orangery was closed, so no coffee there. In desperation, I went to Costa. At home I did a few more chores, and made a Kedgeree. I have been doing a few things on the Horticultural web site, I have been fiddling with some code ChatGPT has written for me, so at the botto...