EASTER 2006

Antics next door

You know that the kids are on holiday. General noise and hubbub is somewhat louder than usual. We live next to two youngsters. The lad, aged 10, is a avid soccer player. He has all the branded gear. His mates used to visit and balls flew everywhere. Now the games are different.

His Dad has banned balls in the garden, thank god. That was last year. This year, it's pro. American wrestling with all the grunts, groans and counts. Three boys wrestle each other on top of the trampoline and slam dunk their mascot teddy bar. That's what the parents like to think that's all they do. I see the fuller picture. Yesterday was a most amusing incident of early male bonding. The three boys had thrown out teddy and each had hold of various limbs, with faces in bottoms, screaming, grunting and loud counting. At one point, the bigger boy was unceremoniously told to sit in the middle of the trampoline while the other two were lining up for a slam dunk!! They spotted me and stopped. I just smiled.

Jack's Visit

My six year old grandson, Jack, has just left after staying for a week. I'm exhausted but exhilarated. It doesn't help being lame with a knackered spine and spastic legs. We went places and did things. We ate our greens, pasta and fish but not our fruit!! 'Yuk- that's disgusting. Mummy never gives me that'! We did key stage 2 english and maths. We prepared a scrap book and did fun things on my PC. We made Easter and thank you cards for the family. We made a star chart for all the good foods eaten for which a reward of 10 stars meant a treat!! This worked well.We never stopped talking for 12 hours each and every day. We went to the library and read books and watched 'Spongebob'. Oh what fun. Now I'm knackered and life is back to our normal daily routine with our ears ringing! If you can have youngsters around when you are 60 you will not die of old age or boredom!!
This experience has fired me up and I'm thinking about doing a spot of voluntary work in our local primary school as a reading listener. I'm convinced that many kids do not get sufficient quality one to one time spent with them. This is because parents are too busy being busy, working and shopping that kids can be overlooked. I'm sure that Jack would benefit from more 'Jack time' as he is a bright kid with a yearning to learn, do everything and feel good. He wants to be a winner.

Dilemma

Maggie's folks are aging more rapidly now. Our son has a dodgy job with five mouths to feed and rent to pay. I'm a worry because I'm the disabled man in her life. Her place of work is getting more tricky to live with. So how best to balance all this lot is proving very draining on Maggie. I need to accept the slow demise of her folks and be as supportive as possible. This is now my role in life. Our son will get a break and their life will improve as he is more focused now after 3 job losses in 6 months. I'm determined to get on top of my health problems and become more stable. All these issues are significant to Maggie but I've learnt over the 34 years of marriage that less talk is best and deeds done are brilliant. I must admit that the state of her parents do make feel like the inevitable will happen and creates a nervous belly ache akin to that awful sinking gut feeling you get when you are scared and frightened. My Mum and Dad were 'fortunate' in the way they died in that they did not suffer loss of dignity. A reality all families have to face. The unexpected is devastating. The expected is no better.

Me, Diet and Health.

Since I saw a nutritionist in March and changed my whole diet, I feel tons better. I want to do more. I stay up until midnight. I want to exercise. I want to have sex again after many years of abstinence. I'm throwing out old boxers and 38 inch jeans. I've lost one stone. I'm Ebaying for replacement jeans, pants and shoes. I want to walk again without my fucking stick as I used to do 10 years ago. I've stopped my main painkiller but still need the anti-inflammatory and blood pressure pills. My legs are twitching and my bowels are working twice a day after being a twice a week man with constipation and piles. But I'm cautious. Just because I feel good now does not mean I'm out of the woods as next week things could be very different. I have learnt that.
But I'm going to see my GP to discuss my gait and appalling feet. I'm going to see if I can come off the BP medicine and tell him about my erectile dysfunction.
My new diet regimen following the visit to IoN qualified nutritionist is going well. I've stopped consuming diary, red meat, yeast products including bread, biscuits and snacks and a little G & T occasionally. I also eat less quantity with three mains and two snacks. The latter is difficult as choice is limiting. I like Nairns Oatcakes with humus. I eat loads of green salad leaves with minimum protein. I drink more water, fruit, nuts,grains, seeds, pulses etc. And I twit like an parrot!! Both Maggie & I following the Patrick Holford regime with Ian Maber thrown in as his recipes are simple to do. I have a range of supplements (costly) to help repair my gut and bowel after 30 years of swallowing prescription drugs. It is the inherent problems with these,that after many NHS insertions into ALL my orifices failed to fix, that were causing loss of appetite, smell & taste and more basically blocked bowels, farting loudly and nausea after food.
Today, things are vastly different. Not that I'm cured yet. Bowels are tricky although going from twice weekly to once or twice daily is a shock to my system albeit pleasant!! My gut powder is making me very alert and stops me from going to bed at 9pm and raising at 9am!! That must be an improvement. My taste and smell are returning. I feel like exercising and becoming more useful.

All for now - Mike