davidgillon: A pair of crutches, hanging from coat hooks, reflected in a mirror (Default)
2024-03-15 07:08 pm
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Back to the old routines

 Lunch with friends yesterday, for I think the first time since pre-Covid. And just by chance we got an absolutely beautiful day for it - blue skies and warm. We've had a couple of other days with blue skies, but they've been bloody freezing. Definitely the best day of the year.

We were trying out a pub that's been refurbished. I've drunk there before, but not in ages, certainly 10 years, possibly 20, it's not as if there's any shortage of pubs on Rochester High Street and this one, formerly The Norman Conquest, but now (and apparently historically) the Royal Crown is at the absolute end of the high street, another hundred feet and you're in the river. It's definitely moved upmarket, one of my friends had hake in lobster sauce with samphire, another had mussels, this is not normal pub grub. Unfortunately the haddock from my haddock and chips had been a bit overdone, so the fish was too chewy and the batter too crunchy. OTOH it still tasted very nice, as did the chips.

I ended up parked where I normally do, which made it a little bit of a push to get to, "Oh," said the friend who'd suggested it, "I thought you'd park on the esplanade", at which point I did a slight head-desk, having completely forgotten there is parking on the esplanade, literally outside.

I waddled home three-ish and spent the entirety of the afternoon and evening trying not to fall asleep.

Could do with a few more days like that.

(But could do without feeling quite so shattered as I did this morning, need to do a bit of work on post-hibernation stamina).

davidgillon: A pair of crutches, hanging from coat hooks, reflected in a mirror (Default)
2023-11-29 03:35 pm
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Lovely to see everyone....

 .... even if it is for a funeral.

Just back from a non-denominational* Celebration for my friend Leon, and saw a whole heap of friends I haven't seen in too long, pre-Covid for most. In fact I'm not sure I've seen one in 25 30** years.

We then adjourned to the pub, which was apparently his one demand for the service.

It was good timing in the catching up with friends as one is apparently in the process of emigrating to Cyprus (she's actually Greek Cypriot originally), drawn by the irresistible lure of a new granddaughter (there were pictures, she has anime-sized eyes, everyone commented on them). I was also reminded that that house with the smashed-in set of railings I've been wincing at every time I drive past for the past fortnight, where the crashing car clearly stopped about six inches from the front door, is actually hers - fortunately she was in Cyprus when it happened.

Another good friend had cat pictures to show me.

Me, laughing: OMG, he really looks like a Bengal.

Her: He is.

And she told the story about how she was effectively conned into taking on Xeno the Bengal by a neighbour (Baroness W - I kid you not, the entire streeet is like that), who first asked for someone to look after him for a couple of weeks as the other Bengal they had was having problems with him, and at the end of the two weeks announced they were emigrating, and leaving Xeno.

OTOH he's apparently done wonders for their mouse problem.

The only drawback was that the pub was tiny, not much bigger than the size of my living room, and the only entrance was up a couple of stairs. It's not the one our circle of friends normally use for funerals, that one was apparently too busy getting ready for the Christmas Dickens festival. The space definitely wasn't ideal, particularly given we had two wheelchair users and could have had three. There was no way you could manoeuvre around to talk to people, so I abandoned the chair after a while and ended up balancing on one leg by the end, needs must. But there clearly was no accessible alternative available given the other wheelchair users are Leon's widow and their daughter.

* For values of non-denominational where you borrow a church to tell stories about the man.

** Just remembered I wasn't using crutches when we knew each other, so that pushes it back to the very early 90s.

davidgillon: A pair of crutches, hanging from coat hooks, reflected in a mirror (Default)
2018-12-01 12:45 am

Friends Are.....

.... people you haven't seen in 28 years, but pick up the conversation right where you left off.

(There's been Facebook in between, but we're fairly confident it's been 28 years since we met in the flesh).

davidgillon: A pair of crutches, hanging from coat hooks, reflected in a mirror (Default)
2016-10-23 09:01 pm
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Catching up with friends can be saddening

Met friend X for Saturday lunch, having not seen any of my local friends face to face since May*, and in the process of catching up with her she brought me up to speed with everyone else. I'd known some of it was going to be bad, our regular Saturday lunch dates stopped suddenly when my friend Y's adult son was hospitalised, and I knew that was dragging on, but not how badly. And she opened that tale by saying "We didn't even see Y at John Z's funeral", to which my reaction was unfortunately, "What, John died? When?"

He was a friend who'd moved away, but formerly another of the Saturday lunch crowd. I was never entirely sure how he felt about me, but I liked him. He'd had serious health problems for years (I think since early 30s and he was pushing 70) and when they worsened had apparently chosen his moment to stop ongoing treatment and time his exit to his satisfaction. He was the archetypal engineer and controls were his speciality, and that is just so like him.

No better news WTR friend Y's son, I knew he'd been rushed into hospital with what they initially thought was an infection, and apparently the diagnosis wandered through meningitis and encephelitis before settling on terminal brain cancer with a 2 year prognosis. Needless to say Y has been distraught. Obviously I then felt a bit of a shit for not being more supportive, but X pointed out she has been offering to meet Y for coffee or whatever on pretty much a weekly basis and hasn't been taken up once (and she just lives around the corner from them). I'll make a similar offer now I know, but it sounds like it's unlikely to be taken up. The one piece of hopeful news is they've just switched his treatment from Kings to Guys**, and Guys thinks a chemo regime is worthwhile, where Kings didn't.

The one truly bright point among all this is that X's husband has been formally declared to be in remission after the bone marrow transplant he had at the start of the year.

I'm okay, sad for friends rather than sad for myself, but sometimes you need to write stuff down to work out how you feel.

* I actually live next town over from everyone else, so unless we actively plan to meet, we tend not to run into each other.

** Major London teaching/specialist hospitals