Monthly Archives: May 2010

I don’t want to do this anymore.  Not for a while, anyway.

Back when my journal was still squeaky clean a dear online friend told me I’d have all the support I needed until the time came when I’d had enough.

That time has come.

I’ll probably be back, sometime.  For now I’m knocking this on the head.

I’ll tweet when I have something to say but for the meantime, this is a sad, heartfelt goodbye.

Thanks for reading.

I went to bed yesterday evening all Lem-sipped-up and resigned to another night of restless sniffing coughing wheezing and moaning.  And then, somewhere around 02:00 the wind shifted and the temperature fell and the pollen sifted from the air for I drifted off and slept for a blissful four hours, waking almost congestion-free.

I’ll not claim to have bounded from my bed all joyful and rejoicing in my resumed freedom.  I don’t really do much in the way of bounding these days.  But I did walk down to the kitchen feeling pretty good for an old guy in need of a wake-up coffee.

The good feelings lasted throughout the morning and right through my afternoon nap from which I woke without a trace of congestion.  As the evening proceeds I can feel a slight tightening in my nasal passages but it’s so minimal I’d not normally notice.

With luck and a following wind I am pulling free of the gunge that’s tied me down this past week or so.  Which is good.

The only trouble is that now I have time to think again and to ponder the activity I need to adopt as a creative outlet.  Bother.

I’ve just about had enough of this hay fever/allergy thing.  I discovered a couple of nights back that a pre-bedtime mug of hot lemon cold/’flu remedy kept the congestion at bay long enough for three hours sleep, on one blessed occasion it stretched out to nearly six.

I oughtn’t to complain.  This is my first ever serious attack and some poor souls suffer for years and years.  But I give fair warning that if it ever comes back I’m going to nag the doctor rotten until I get serious treatment for the condition.

So that’s been my life for the past few days.  Revelling in the sun.  Gazing at the sky.  Listening to the birds singing.  Sniffing menthol and eucalyptus every night.

Graham’s now finished the levelling and grading of the ex-lawn and is hoping for rain to give it a good soaking and settling before we order the turf.  I think he reckoned it’d be easy but it has turned out to be a major task.

In my quieter moments I’ve been listening to English music of the summer kind — Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Delius…  Makes me feel good.

It’s still lovely but if I don’t peel myself off this chair PDQ then Graham will do the big sad eyed “Is it dinner time yet?” act and I’ll have to admit my guilt.  I love the long lazy days of summer, gazing up at the sky, soaring with the skylark:

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Another hot sunny day, even hotter than yesterday.  There are hotter places in the world of course but I’m here to tell you that for us here in South Wales, 24°C is hot enough.  Me, with nothing much to do but snooze in the shade, I’m enjoying it thoroughly.

Graham got up and out early and finished digging over what was the front lawn, receiving a heartfelt “Oh, well done!” as reward.  We’ll leave it to dry out in the sun for a few days before cultivating and grading, followed by the laying of the turf.  Our neighbours have voiced their admiration for the ‘hard work’.  Graham’s street cred has leapt forward several notches.

Me, I’m lazing it out.  I do lunch and, on non-curry days, I do dinner.  Otherwise I make tea when called upon to do so.  My office chair is supremely comfortable on long hot days.

Sadly, the nights are not so good and the congestion in my tubes makes me liable to sniff and cough by turns.  Could be worse.

Oh, yes.  Tofu.  Several people have asked me why I don’t like tofu.  Not really feeling any more need to justify my aversion to it than George Bush did his hatred of broccoli (I like broccoli) I generally say that I don’t dislike it but can find no pleasure in it.  If they press me further I say that it’s because it makes me think of minced cadaver, bleached and purified into clammy slabs.

So there.