Skip to main content

Please Madam

 You would think that with all the stuff I have given away, sold or taken  to the tip, there would be nothing left to chuck out but you would be wrong.  Every day I get up at 4.00am and drive to the hospital in Angers to get nuked.  I leave the car in the park  and ride and take the tram, and nearly every day the inspectors get on to check the tickets.  Not one inspector, 7 or 8 of them, entering by every door so that no-one can escape. I sit smugly watching while people are fined or ejected from the tram as the only time I didn't have a ticket was because the machine was out of order.  Yesterday I reached into my bag, pulled out my ticket and handed it to the inspector.  Her machine beeped and lit  up red.  Out of date.  I scrabbled around in my bag and found another, and another.  Eight in all, and everyone out of date.  The other inspectors had finished their inspecting and were now gathered round me watching my antics.  In desperation I emptied my bag into my lap and spotted one ticket in between my vaccine passport pages.  Ah ha, exclaimed the inspector as she triumphantly showed me her machine flashing green.  'Madam, please throw all these tickets away and only keep this one until the end of your journey, then throw it in the bin provided.'  'Yes, I will,' I replied humbly, all trace of smugness having disappeared.

The tiredness from daily doses of radiotherapy is increasing daily but exercise is important so each day I get off the tram 3 stops before the hospital and walk over the bridge and along the river.  I do the same for the return journey and it makes me feel much better, while the early morning light is supposed to be good for you.  Then by the time I get home I collapse in a heap.  Well it felt good at the time.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Playing by ear

My father could play the piano.  Not an unusual skill but he was deaf.  He lost his  hearing fighting in the army in India in the 30s so he was an adult when he lost it and therefore remembered tunes, even though he couldn't hear him.  However he didn't have the skill to learn anything new so  either you liked the old music or you didn't.  He used to say that he played by ear and then would roar with laughter.  He would have struggled in many ways with modern living but most of all during the pandemic, he would have lost his ability to communicate as he always lip read.  There must be thousands of people like him today who still rely on reading lips to understand,  in fact all of us do it to some extent, so please be patient if someone is struggling to communicate while you are wearing a mask. I went to the supermarket today and at the check out, the cashier asked me to move the trolley into a particular position.  As I manoeuvred it ...

Oops!

 The air conditioning has broken in my car so it was some relief when the temperature dropped  back to the 30 degree mark.  This gave my neighbours fresh enthusiasm to clear up overgrown vegetation.  At my request my American neighbour climbed down to a flat bit of ground where a tree had grown about 6 feet in as many weeks, to lop it.  My job was to clear all the debris when it fell and drag it to a parking space in the courtyard.  The system was working well with another neighbour and her granddaughter joining in to help me clear the debris.  Meanwhile. up above us the American was in full swing, not stopping at 'lopping' the tree but cutting it right back to its roots.  Soon great big branches were hurtling down and that is when it happened.  One branch, instead of coming straight down to the ground decided to take a detour onto his garage roof, creating a big hole right above where his precious car, a Tesla, was being kept safe and sound....

I'm Free

 After being incarcerated in my son's house waiting for the results of the day 2 test I was finally allowed out today.  I went to Chichester and was saddened by the number of familiar shops that have disappeared from the town centre.  Bognor is the same.  You wouldn't die of thirst in either town though as the number of cafes has increased.  Both town centres were busy making it difficult to keep a safe distance from others but many people were wearing masks in the street. I was pulled over by Customs in Caen.  As I opened the trunk of the car one of the officers asked me if I was carrying goods.  'Yes,' I replied, ' French Champagne and French wine'  They nodded approvingly and waved me away. During my 3 days in the house, I have cleaned, filed all their paperwork, mended the shower, cooked dinner and tried watching television, the latter being totally uninspiring.  The news consists of covid, travel restrictions, forbidden Christmas parties...