Ad Infinitum

So much has happened between now and then that I don’t know whether I am coming or going.
I have had in incredibly silly reaction to the London air having come back from the cottage.
Sneezing, itching, coughing and then nothing. Under the trees whilst driving past Battersea Park and I was wracked with a huge hacking cough that started my eyes streaming and my nose running and then nothing.
Today I woke up without the old git, he drove home last night after our evening with BONNIE ODDIE at Jacksons Lane Arts Centre.
A cold Highgate night saw several turn out to support the brilliant Oddie and her dancers.

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I had a delicious walk through Regents Park, past full blown blossom, huge chestnut trees, cranes on the canal bank, noisy mallards, a Mosque, picnics full of orthodox Jews celebrating passover, toy dogs and several lunchers eating their sandwiches in the sun. So many smiles today .
I had coffee on St. Johns Wood High Street, then got a call from two folk I had forgotten I was meeting in Battersea Square. So….

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Walking back from the BBC is glorious in this weather.
Meandering through Soho and down to St. James Park, the ducks quacking, the sun shining, the tourists ambling, the open topped buses passing. The Union Jacks flying on Regent Street whipping up wedding fever. I felt like a tourist myself, walked so fast to Victoria, it felt quite like old times.
Grabbed a bus at Victoria and in the flat by the time a huge black cloud obscured the sun. Didn’t stop me sitting on the balcony with the daughter and a huge bowl of green salad and coconutty quinoa.
Here we go again with cranky stuff. But I love it. Now classified as a seed not a grain its so easy to cook. A few minutes in boiling water, then I let it stand whilst I collected the offspring from the station. When I came back it had steamed itself to a delicious grainy mush. I added coconut milk and onion seeds. Bloomin’ lovely.
At the last minute we said goodbye to each other and the ‘oosbind and I set off to see IOLANTHE at WILTONS MUSIC HALL.

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Hmm. Jean, I took my antibacterial drops, a compress of potato, some homeopathic remedies – not magic beans Jean – real live remedies bought from a real live pharmacy-
and….the conclusion Jean is that the potato and the remedies did the trick. Wonderful eh? A belt and braces approach to my conjunctiva and it all worked? You suspect, Jean, that the good old eye drops might have helped.
I’m sure they did Jean, alongside all my other self-help options.
The Conjunctivitis was not annoying Jean, although I will admit it did give me a pain in the head. I don’t know what you mean about self-limiting, since I am just an old lady who knows nothing about anything – but then you concluded that yourself did you not Jean?
Dear Jean, you suggest there was little point in taking any remedy (homeopathic or not) apart from some eye
lubricant, and you say that antibiotics aren’t usually prescribed. That’s good. I always opt for my homeopathic remedies, when appropriate, as they more often than not make me feel better and I rarely go near antibiotics. I bought antibacterial drops over the counter. Harmless, said the pharmacist although she told me to read the instructions carefully as the drugs in the drops, if taken too liberally, could burn my eyeball. I was exceedingly careful.
You say Jean, that potato sounds like a very dodgy thing to put anywhere near the eye – well it certainly soothed my puffy socket, and thank you again Jean I wondered what property was in the good old spud you informed me its solanine (a toxic alkaloid), although you also say an uncooked spud can harbour some fairly unpleasant fungi and bacteria, thank heavens my organic spud had no such nasty properties. I wonder how all our old wives knew about such things?
You ask why I brought Stephen Fry into it!? Well why not?
Thank for your comment though, and since you asked, I am feeling tip-top now and my eye is pretty much mended. The acupuncture helped not to mention the absent healing and the corn dolly I slept with whilst facing East and howling at the moon.

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There was I writing speeches and listening to Trevor Silvester a lot.
And then all of a sudden, out of the blue, without any warning, with out a bye-or-leave I get struck down with conjunctivitis.
The only thing I know about conjunctivitis is if you say it with your mouth on its side you sound like you come from the North East.
Think of Ant saying ‘conjunctivitis’ and then
‘John Paul Gaultier broke the photocopier.’
See what I mean….that’s another North Eastern sentence.
Anyway given that I didn’t know what it was I got up and went into Aunty Beeb yesterday for my briefing for THE MARATHON on Sunday.

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Housewiffery is on the agenda today.
Sometimes I don’t mind it, today its alright as it’s the only thing that will warm me up.
I couldn’t sleep so I watched Jessica Double Thingy simper her way through ‘Sex in the City’. I’ve never watched the series before but I’m intrigued by the story telling.
My inabilty to sleep was not helped by putting Tiger Balm on my knees. The smell of menthol got right up my nose.
As did Jessica Double Thingy’s simpering.
I finally was laid to rest at 4.00a.m.

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I have just necked the last of the Prosecca.
Jim and I had the last of the spicy chicken wings and I have written my thank you letters.
I had a very different birthday. It was the end of a challenging year and the beginning of my 62nd foray into life.

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When the alarm bellowed at me I literally leapt out of bed.
At six in the morning there is no point in arguing with John Humphries.
Collected my shorts and vest from the utility room, rolled up a clean towel, filled my water bottle with filtered iced water, poured in a sashet of something with vitamins in, threw in my phone and purse and crept out of the flat.
Within 30 minutes I had driven through Wandsworth, Clapham and Balham, parked in Sainsbury’s and arrived at the Bikram reception bang on time.
The 6.30 class was fuller than I expected, but we worked as one. The teacher, new to me, was lovely and I left after 90 minutes of blissful moving meditation.

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First I watch the BBC news at 6.00
Then I watch The ITV news at 6.30.
Libya, Japan and energy companies who have us by the short and curlies.
Then I watch Corrie.
Then I watch University Challenge.
‘WE ARE ALL SARDINES JUST LOOKING FOR THE KEY.’
Or some such quote from Alan Bennett.
Then I watch the second part of Corrie and find my self getting really angry with the mother of the publican.

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