Again lots happening, just the way I like it. We have of course had the general election and I assisted with counting the votes yet again. We also had a little Christmas with Becky and David joining us for the weekend. Hannah was home from college and we all wore silly hats.
The highlight of the week was all being together over the weekend. My son-in-law David has been the butt of much student banter in wearing shorts and flip flops a lot. That was definitely the case this last weekend with him forgetting to bring anything else to wear. It was so nice having us all together, around the dining room table for a Christmas meal. We did this as they will spend Christmas Day at their own house in Exeter. It was so heartwarming for us.
The general election was, of course, such a momentous event for the country and one where I am left feeling quite stunned (but not entirely surprised) at the further swing to the right. It seems the effect of Brexit dragging on and the “lets get it done” mantra from Boris Johnson which seems to have won people over. Perhaps some good may come of it. I still regret us leaving the EU in about six weeks time; people just didn’t know what they were voting for in the 2016 referendum.
The election count was fairly predictable. My friend Steve was also a counting assistant so we drove over to the blummin Council offices together. We were both wrapped up in numerous layers on account of the count taking place in a giant marquee. In the end we had to strip off a bit as it was so warm and that did create a little awkwardness on my part as I was then no longer wearing politically neutral clothing.
The intriguing bit was when I spotted a slightly pink looking ballot paper. It wasn’t defaced in the usual way, it all looked perfect apart from being on slightly pink paper which was different from the rest. I flagged it up to the supervisor who took it off to the top table (for the Council’s CEO and legal advisors). I never knew the outcome of that, though it’s possible someone might have slipped a DIY ballot paper in. I got home at about 4am and have felt jet lagged since.
I have continued running everyday. My ankles and knees are adapting quite well to this regime although I will ease back on 1 January. My runs range from 0.7 to almost 8 miles and average about 30 mins a day. This is good for clearing my mind, raising my heart rate, burning a lot of calories and hopefully keeping my blood pressure down.
Becky happily came to do the Dunstable Downs Parkrun with me on Saturday. Her pace is slower than mine, although she is faster at sprinting to the finishing line and therefore beat me by a second! Such a nice daughter-dad thing to do.
I went, as usual, to the church Art Group on Tuesday. Once again I spent so much time chatting I got virtually nothing done and an elderly lady has, sort of, adopted me. She is hard of hearing, speaks VERY LOUDLY and grumbles a lot. I can handle her, so that’s the way it goes!
Hannah has needed our attention and care quite a bit this last week, forgive me for not going into too many details. It was nice seeing her enjoying having Becky and David around for the weekend; Rachel and I did enjoy their company.
I was chuffed when the blummin Council spotted the above photo which I took on one of my early morning runs, along the Busway. They asked if they could use it with their social media and it is now their profile picture on Facebook and Twitter!
Finally, an interesting couple of weeks with readers from around the world getting in touch about the strange world of catheters. Last year, when I had an indwelling catheter for 7 months, I blogged about it. Since then it has become my most popular post(!) and everyday people find it via Google. Sometimes people leave comments or contact me directly and it’s nice to be able to bring first hand experience when there is virtually nothing on the web about this. Soon I hope to do a FAQ post about intermittent self catheterisation but this is for the wider benefit, not for my local friends to have to wade through!