Illegal occupation denounced

A good night's sleep, waking up to sunshine and clouds. Clare's study group arrived after breakfast. I sat in the lounge and finished my stroke anniversary reflection. Clare was busy cooking after they left while I was still writing. After lunch I dozed in my armchair for half an hour then went out shopping for groceries.

In Parliament this afternoon, Jewish MP David Milliband denounced ethnic cleansing by Israeli settlers in Gaza and the Palestinian Territories condoned by the Israeli government. He proposed economic sanctions banning goods from illegal West Bank settlements. Strong language about illegal occupation as well as the sanctions has provoked a furious reaction from Israel. Diplomatic repercussions include the closure of the UK Consulate in East Jerusalem. Other European nations are adopting the sanctions, but Trump's regime won't. The Chief Rabbi is concerned sanctions will lead to an increase in antisemitic attacks on Britain's Jewish communities. It's a serious worry as there's so much anger and desire for revenge in every direction. Where can reconciliation begin when so much evil has been done on all sides?

I went out again after supper for a sunset walk up and down Llandaff Fields. The sky was fairly clear so the light didn't fade as quickly as last night, but the wind was colder. I could have done with a pullover or a warmer jacket to keep the chill away. 

Clare's friend Linda rang up in a panic as she had unwittingly compromised her BT email account. He address book had been compromised and it was now sending out toxic spam. I advised her as best I could over the phone, and urged her to call BT to rescue her account, and warn all her contacts by Gmail. Such a distressing occurrence for someone with limited technical understanding.

Rachel sent us a video clip of her new apartment, piled high with boxes from her weekend move, and then a second one showing the progress she's already made in making a living space for herself, with Zeke miaowing us a welcome greeting. I can sleep easier knowing that Rachel's relocation to Cottonwood is now safely behind her and a new way of life lies open for her.

Reviewing the year

I didn't sleep well due to pain in my lower bowel keeping me awake, then when I got up, diarrhea associated with the medication, so a slow start to the day. Thankfully the bum wound continues to heal. Coincidentally I had a message from the GP surgery to book an appointment to discuss my recent referral - but which one? I hope it's about the medication. I phoned to arrange one after breakfast and will have to wait a fortnight to find out. 

A walk to the shops before lunch to buy swabs and a Cayenne pepper refill. Clare bought Cayenne pepper on her shopping trip, another co-incidence.

After lunch, I went to the Kings Road pharmacy with a prescription renewal request for blood pressure medication. It won't be ready until Friday. I remembered this in good time with a week's supply in hand. Renewal of various meds aren't synchronised, so I need to be vigilant about stock taking. 

Next Monday it'll be a year since the stroke. I wrote a reflective piece on the life changing nature of the experience and the end of my public ministry, to post on the Parish WhatsApp Daily Prayer thread. I don't know if anyone will read it. So few actually listened to my contribution on YouTube that I often wondered if it was worth doing just for its own sake. Servants of God's Word can never be sure if anyone has been listening to them, let alone understood, but it's what we're called to do no matter what the result. That's the nature of giving witness to the mystery of God with us.

Clare went to choir practice at supper time. After eating I completed my daily walk in Llandaff Fields as it was getting dark. Being out at this time of evening awakens memories of the early weeks of living with the stroke when I went out and walked at dusk in an effort to establish how limiting the effect of visual impairment would be. Despite my apprehension I risked the possibility of getting myself into trouble, losing my way, falling or banging into something un-noticed and injuring myself. Only once did I bruise my left arm, bumping into the projecting edge of a gateway parapet. 

I found a Spanish crimmie to watch on Walter Presents, a story set in Marbella showcasing its reputation as the capital of the 'costa del crime'. A bit far fetched, but I enjoyed listening to the dialogue and being able to follow most of it.

A clearer head

After a good night's sleep, the longest I've had since taking note of it, I woke up to blue sky and sunshine feeling clear headed, and the effect of the meds wasn't as unpleasant and hard to cope with as it has been this past few months. 

We went to the Eucharist at St Catherine's. Sunday school has re-started so after Communion, a group of exuberant under tens rejoined the congregation. We were introduced to Beth, our new ordinand on pastoral placement who conducted the Ministry of the Word with Siôn preaching. She spoke about herself at the end of the service against the background of kids being noisy, which made her barely audible - partly lack of experience with the lectern microphone, partly my diminished ability to hear high pitched voices clearly. Practice makes perfect hopefully. 

We learned that Jeremy our previous ordinand on placement is stuck in Indonesia where he went to get married last month. An eruption of the Mount Anak Krakatoa volcano has closed the airspace. Let's hope he can return in time to be ordained Deacon at Michaelmass.

After lunch and a rest we walked around Llandaff Fields. It's noticeably warmer this afternoon, and another heat wave is promised this week. We  went in search of a functioning ATM to withdraw cash. They are fewer and further between these days. The one in Kings Road Co-op was out of action as usual, but Clare was able to get cashback when she bought a few food items there.

After supper, a chat with Owain at the end of his long weekend in Nerja, then a short walk at dusk, enjoying the mild evening air with my head almost clear of the medication side effects.

Improvement

A better night's sleep, waking up to blue sky and 20C temperature, leaving me clear headed, less impacted by the meds than I usually am. Clare made the usual Saturday pancakes for breakfast. I made a paella with Ashton's fish pie mix for lunch. I took advantage of feeling sharper to collect, sort and file bank statements accumulated over the past year. All too often my concentration has been too poor to deal with them and put them away properly. Just one of several dimensions to chaos in the aftermath of the stroke.

A top Israeli official Israel Katz says that Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza should be removed. The Israeli army has already forcibly displaced much of the population into restricted areas, killing more than 900 during a so-called cease-fire in the face of resistance from remaining Hamas militias. Israeli settlers are driving Palestinian settlers from West Bank land under the gaze of the army. Altogether it's nothing more or less than ethnic cleansing. Religious extremists claim from Hebrew scripture the right to resettle in the promised land by driving out its present inhabitants. How can any good come out of this for anyone?

A walk in Llandaff Fields for nearly two hours after lunch, then in the evening we were invited to Clive and Hilary's golden wedding anniversary party with their friends and church members. The atmosphere was very convivial but I found it tiring having to cope with being in a crowd of people, many of whom I didn't know feeling slightly light headed, so we didn't stop until the end. We returned home at half past nine and started getting ready for bed straightaway. Better not to overdo it after an improved day.

Poor communication

Overcast today. I slept fairly well, but I didn't feel refreshed on waking up and felt unwell after taking the meds, which clouded my head and left me feeling drowsy for most of the day. There was a missed phone call from British Gas Home Care and an email flagging up the cancellation of our direct debit, notifying us of cancellation fees. Our bank account shows a cancellation fee has been taken. We are still waiting for the confirmation of that cancellation. Two weeks ago I wrote to British Gas customer services to notify them of the cancellation of our direct debit, but had no acknowledgement. This is distressing and not easy to cope with when I'm feeling unwell. I emailed a copy of the letter to a customer services address with a request for clarification about what I owe now. Looking back, engaging in the contract happened rather too smoothly and easily for me to question at the time. Or maybe the problem is that I can't think fast enough there days to take in all the details.

Then I had a notification from the NHS app to say I've been removed from the 'Rehabilitation Medicine' waiting list I was informed I'm on last week, with no idea of why I'd been put on that list to start with. Having to approach the GP surgery staff to ask for clarification can be pretty futile. The medics make the referral and may not be available to ask without the hassle of booking an appointment and wasting their time. In my spam folder I found a dodgy email purporting to come from NHS app administrators. Either Android or Chrome OS is leaking information to third party crook somewhere in cyberspace.

Posters for the next Sonrisa Arts 'Dance in the Dark' tour arrived in the post, for us to put up in the church hall, on Chapter's community noticeboard, and Canton library children's section. After lunch I went to the library and asked if I could put up a poster. I was disconcerted and disappointed to be denied permission as the poster isn't bi-lingual. Considering it's a dance performance with sound and movement, without speech I thought this was mean spirited, even if it is compliant to the letter of the law. Clare is thinking about how she can modify the poster to make it bi-lingual. If it had been thought about and prepared from scratch, the cost of translation, design and production would be prohibitive on a modest budget.

After this set-back I went out to buy veggies. By that time both local greengrocers were closed, so I went and bought what we needed in Tesco's instead. After supper I walked up and down Llandaff Fields for three quarters of an hour at sunset, dark by eight o'clock. At last my head is clear after a miserable foggy brain day. Bed beckons.

LPA dispatched

Going to bed earlier didn't make any difference to the amount of sleep I got - less than I really need. I felt unwell in addition. I needed to drink more water than usual. Despite my daily effort to drink sufficiently, it never seems to be enough. Dehydration creeps in due to the diuretic effect of medication and it takes a few hours for the ill effects to disappear after drinking a litre.

When Clare went for her hairdo with Chris yesterday, she took with her my Lasting Power of Attorney application document for him to sign. His signature was the last one to be added before I sign and date it. As we've not seen him for a while the application neared its time expiry date, and I received a chase-up reminder to get on with the job. After breakfast I did the signing and then took the two documents to the Post Office. They cost twenty one pounds first class recorded delivery. I just hope there are no un-noticed errors in them.

A message arrived on the NHS app to say that I'm now on a General Surgery waiting list. It informed me that the average wait time for a consultation is ten weeks and that ten per cent of people waiting have to wait twenty nine weeks. For treatment, the wait is twenty one weeks and that ten percent of people have to wait seventy one weeks! 

After preparing and eating lunch I went to Jason's greengrocer's to stock up on veg, still in a drowsy toxic haze, feeling as if I am sleepwalking. It's not good for confidence when walking outdoors. Another NHS app message arrived offering a consultation on 9th November, nine weeks from now. And that's the result of an 'urgent' referral. As for nursing support for the bum boil, forget it. Fortunately the wound is behaving healthily so far. A general surgery examination and scan might identify vulnerability in a wound scar that can be dealt with, or lead to some infection preventative measure.

We walked together in Llandaff Fields for half an hour before supper, then watched a documentary on iPlayer about jazz creative genius Miles Davis called 'Birth of the Cool', the title of his first record album. Listening to tracks accompanying the storytelling took me back to being sixteen again and hearing this new music for the first time on scoutmaster Penry Jones's record player. Marvellous memories.

Kafkaesque NHS

It rained during the night, with a drop in temperature and an increase in humidity enough to wake me up feeling slightly chilled. I put on a warm dressing gown but didn't sleep well thereafter and felt tired all day. A wet overcast day. Each time there's been a torrential downpour lately water has been overshooting the gutter and running down the wall outside the kitchen window. The gutter along the edge of the roof was set too close to the edge of the  bottom tile - possibly a consequence of the re-roofing job done a few years ago. The gutter needed re-aligning in relation to the tiles and set at a different gradient to improve water run-off. It's become more noticeable with the increase of extreme weather events this past year or so. Clare arranged for a visit from a guttering specialist. A morning's work in persistent drizzle for two men - £400. I stayed in with her while the job was being done and missed the Wednesday Eucharist at St Catherine's. We won't know how successful the adjustment made to the guttering will be until there's another torrential downpour.

After lunch I set out on foot for an acupuncture appointment at Parkwood Clinic feeling very lethargic and stiff, so I took the bus from the stop opposite the Half Way pub. The treatment boosted my energy enough for me to walk over the Riverside clinic on my way back home, to check with a wound treatment nurse if my referral for treatment had been received. That was how I learned the district nurses' treatment room is now at St David's hospital. The receptionist gave me the phone number for the district nurse 'hub' which I called when I got home. 

I wasn't able to find out if I'd been referred for treatment, or when I would hear about an appointment. I was advised to call the GP surgery which I did. The receptionist was unable to help as Dr Mullaney, who made the 'urgent' referral, wasn't on duty to ask. All I know from the app is that I'm on a 'Rehabilitation Medicine' waiting list, whatever that is, but no information is communicated about how long the queue is, or what it leads to. It's like being inside a novel by Kafka. It seems the left hand of NHS services doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Just as well the wound seems to be drying out and isn't inflamed at the moment.

The drizzling rain eased off mid afternoon. I walked up and down Llandaff Fields for an hour before supper to clear my head and complete my daily step quota, despite physical tiredness. Without the acupuncture treatment I wouldn't have been able to summon the effort. Bed even earlier tonight.