Creaking gate

I am doing rather well on the NHS recently. I am going to see the physio in the hospital about my knee on Wednesday, then to the dentist for a check up on Thursday. In addition to that I have an application in through Access to Work to get a good chair for work.

I have had back problems for years, sacro-iliac problems and have been seeing a variety of chiropracters, osteopaths before finally settling for physiotherapy. There is a private, but very reasonably priced, physio service in Llantwit, and doing the exercises plus Pilates have definitely helped. However I got new chair at work last year sometime which gave me sciatica! I went back to the old chair and recently asked my boss for a new, good-for-the-back chair.

The first step was a consult with the occupational health dept, and the chap who came over set up the application for Access to Work. This is a fund which provides special equipment for people to either stay in work, or get back to work. He wasn't sure I would qualify as I am in work, and trying to stay that way, however I have been accepted by them.

The assessor is coming over on Wednesday and will do a full ergonomic survey of me and my workplace, and then make a report and recommendations. I hope he recommends a new chair, because they will provide a rolls royce chair which should - I hope - really help with the sciatica and the back. The occ health guy did say that a new chair will be provided anyway, but I will get a better one if I can get extra funding through Access to Work. Fingers crossed.

It is encouraging though.

Cheesey

Yesterday we were in London, and went for tea in Fortum and Mason. Before we had tea we had a potter around the shop and the things you can buy in there are amazing. I bought 4 different sorts of cheese to have for our supper that night, and the decision making process took ages.

There are so many different sorts of cheese. Every country has different sorts of cheese, thought there are variations which are similar, because they all start with the same basic ingredients - ie milk from cow or sheep or goat (I suppose you can get camel and things but ....). The ways people found to create cheese from milk have created so many different cheeses. I stood in front of the counter and dithered for a long time, as I ignored the ones I already knew and wondered which ones I should buy from among all the ones I didn't know. Eventually I decided to get a creamy milk one, a blue one with grapes on the outside, some Stinking Bishop, and some pecorrino . There were lots of others which were tempting, but there is a limit to how much cheese any four people can eat in one night.

There is something which is so satisfying about the combination of cheese, red wine and good company which it is hard to beat, so we had a truly lovely evening as well as a really good day.

We went to the Cabinet war rooms and the Churchilll museum which was fascinating. The Cabinet war rooms have been recreated as they were during the war, and it is interesting how small, dark and claustrophobic they rooms are. The corridors are low and narrow, with small rooms and dark furniture, no windows, there are parts which show you the huge concrete slab above the ceiling which was designed to protect the rooms from bomb falls above. The Churchill museum is very well done, with a great deal of information about Churchill all through his life, and some very nifty button pushing things to play with as well. We also had a cup of tea in the canteen which was tea in a pot, and in nice cups as well.

Then we went and had a very posh tea in Fortum and Mason which was very, very good indeed.

It was an excellent day.

Life - like buses

It is odd isn't it, that life can't seem to manage to spread itself out nicely. You go through phases when nothing at all is happening, and some variety would be warmly welcomed, interrupting the routine of work, dinner, tv, chores etc, then you get phases when so much is happening that you hardly seem to be able to fit everything in - let alone enjoy it all.

This weekend is a case in point. Nic and I are going to Kate's tomorrow and will be fed an excellent meal cooked by Carl, and I think we are going to have a go on the Wii fit which should be fun - or at least entertaining. On Saturday we are going up to London, having a potter around Selfridges, then going round the War Cabinet rooms where we will meet, sister, brother in law, both their kids and their significant others. The we go to Fortnum and Mason to have tea. There is a respectful pause at this point. We will have sandwiches, scone with clotted cream and cakes and tea and (if you want) champagne.

Then we were just going to waddle off to the station to go back to Kate's. However Chris is in London so we are squishing in a quick meeting in a pub between tea and the train. It is lovely to get to see her but it would be nicer if we had more time.

I have also had an email from a friend in Kent who is going to be over here in July. Unfortunately it is one of the weeks I have booked for holiday, so I am going to have to try to get to see her in the early part of her visit, and then go away on holiday. If she was coming a week earlier then I could have seem much more of her.

Sods law.

Learning from children

Now the kids are adult I find it fascinating how much I end up learning from them. I always have learnt from them of course - they teach you how to rear kids (by practical experience), new maths methods when helping them with homework (how do you do long division??) and so on.

Now though I can find out lots of things from their interests and their activities. I am learning a lot about horse racing these days. Now Nicky is working in racing I am finding out all sorts of things about how the racing world works which I didn't learn by reading Dick Francis novels (though they were quite enlightening too). Yesterday she was in the Racing Post as the Person of the day at Huntingdon races on Sunday (which involves a little paragraph about that person). I now know the difference between a claim race and a selling race, and all sorts of things. I do start with a certain knowledge of horses which is useful, but the depth of information is increasing the longer she works there. I still don't understand betting though. We looked it up on the internet and were none the wiser by the time we finished. I think it is like Mah Jong - you need to learn by being shown, not by reading the book.

Tomorrow however I am pursuing my own interests, and am singing. The choir is singing Palestrina's Misaa Beata Virgine in a service in Ewenny Priory. Thankfully we are not singing the Credo, because we haven't had time to learn it properly since Christmas. Fingers crossed that it all goes ok, though the congregation aren't a very critical audience, and singing a mass as part of a service is a really nice thing to do because it puts it into a proper context. The were written for liturgical purposes, not as concert pieces and I do enjoy putting them back into their context, expecially in a church which is the right age. Actually it is a lot older than Palestrina, being 13th century, but it was around at the same time as he was writing.

However now I must go to listen to a newer piece of music as Brian has written something and wants me to hear it. Even listening on a computer it is still exciting to be the first person to hear something newly written.

The sun has got his hat on

The sun was out again this weekend, and brought lots of people with it. Down at the beach people were walking, playing, windsurfing, and generally making the most of it. The wind was a bit chilly but otherwise you could have thought it was July not March.

Just as well, because the rain is back today, the heating needs to be turned back up, and I was cold at work, so needed an extra layer on. Ho hum.
However here is one of the many palm trees which seem to flourish in Llantwit, which always surprises me, because the temperature is far from tropical.

The good news is that I have passed my first indexing exam. I wasn't actually in a great deal of doubt about passing this one as most of it was stuff I did studying for librarianship. However the feedback they sent back was quite detailed, and I will go through the paper I sent in as they suggested. However it is stage 1, and I will send off for the next one now.

Sunday was Mother's day, and I was sent a blouse by Kate which is lovely. Sunday morning I came down to breakfast to discover a big bouquet of flowers, a scented candle and a card from Adam, and he had also put out a bowl, a spoon and my usual breakfast cereal waiting for me which was very nice indeed. Child no 3 - who was at work on Sunday - has yet to produce a card .... so I am waiting with baited breath.

Ageism

It is bizarre how ageist the world of classical music is. Competitions for compositions are so frequently age defined, "for the under 30s" or similar restrictions. Why? Is there a presumption that one becomes less able to write well as one gets older? Their own history should tell them otherwise as there are numerous composers who wrote fantastic work during their old age, sometimes revolutionary work, so why? There are areas of performance when age is a hindrance - dance and sport are obvious examples, but other art forms are not limited by age In literature you don't find the same thing, because - unless for kids - the age is not important. You get competitions for crime writing, women's writing, sf etc, but age isn't one of the criteria. Why should it be?

Yet when Brian is looking for competitions to submit pieces to they are frequently limited like that. I find it very odd.

Fresh eggs for dinner

I have lovely very fresh eggs for my dinner. One hen egg (it might be a bantam judging by the size) and one duck. The advantages of Nic having friends who keep chickens - thank you Chloe.

You can tell how fresh they are because the whites are much more solid, and don't run across the pan when you crack them.

They were delicious, really, really tasty. I pity you all for not having had them for dinner.

Now I am having some nuts and raisins, and I also had some dates.

Also it is spring and the really nice fruit season will be starting soon.

When I was younger I loved Autumn the best of the seasons, in the teenage melancholy way, but now I am older it is Spring which is the best for me. I love the tiny snowdrops pushing through in the winter, sometimes in the snow. The lambs being born in the cold of February, again sometimes in the snow, then the daffodils which are all over the place in Wales. When we went abroad in March with the Choir one of the things I loved was coming back into Wales in the coach because when you come over the bridge out of England and into Wales the banks on the motorway are covered with daffodils, and there are more in the fields, in gardens, everywhere. The after that come the crocuses, the purple and the yellow ones, and then we head on into summer when all the flowers come out and it is colour everywhere. I love it.