Wednesday, December 31, 2008


A very happy new year to each and every one of my three readers, (I know it is sometimes more, but I really can't get used to this, as I think of it as mainly a diary just for me).
That was the year that was.

I can't think beyond my own year at first. I was in hospital for a few very pleasant days. There was a worry that my heart might be ready for failure, but I felt I was coping with that very well. There was no room in the coronary ward, so they put me in organ transplant. While I was there, I met a man who was somewhat sad because he had ruined his liver drinking. He had quit for many years and was suitable for a transplant. After a long wait he had been called in for the operation, only to be told, while I shared the room with him, that once again the donor was found to be unsuitable. Another man had a successful kidney transplant, but he was also miserable. David lent me his laptop and I watched the whole of "Arrested Development" with a headset, so these miserable men were assaulted by my periodic outburst of hilarious laughter. Whatever the outcome, I accepted that I must lose weight. I weighed 264 at the highest and lost about ten pounds fairly easily, keeping a food diary and weighing in every morning. I dipped below 250 a couple of times, but I haven't yet got by that plateau. I joined a fitness club, but haven't been for two weeks, much discouraged by their sauna and steam room both being out of action. I did one free class, which was way too advanced for me, supposedly in Pilates, but, to me, it seemed like basic marine endurance.
Cathy and I went to France for my dear nephew's wedding. My brothers put on a terrific show in the French Alps, which some how included a firework display in the middle of the night. Not one villager protested. For one meal I sat between my first wife, (common law) and my second, Cathy. My younger brother gave me a long promised notebook computer and a lot of money in cash, which covered our expenses and then some.
Soon after our return, we learned that we had to vacate our rented house and we eagerly set about finding a house to buy. We both fell in love with the kooky house we actually bought, just at the wrong time, as house prices collapsed about a month later. We are very happy there and secure in the knowledge that had we waited, (had we known what no one else knew), we would not have the house.
David had to give up his apartment and returned to live in our spare family room. He studied hard and got 78% on his exam. He has an attractive beard. He went through a sort of paranoid anger phase and, as he gains more confidence, it has mercifully passed. He will always think passionately, which can be tiring, but I also admire him for it.
Matthew was doing very well at Davey's as an arborist/ landscape worker, but the dessicans osteo condritis in his knee became too painful and he had to be operated on. He is laid up for at least another four months. His humour is subdued, but healthy and, like our sleepy cat, he is good to have around.
William is thriving on his jewelry course. He has, as Cathy says, found his niche.
Each, in his own way, is excellent company and I wish I was not often too tired to take them somewhere in the one car . Actually, when Matthew started work, he bought his own car, but now that Toyota sits sadly inactive in the garage under the family room. In fact, under our Christmas tree.
We had our first Christmas in the new house, which, for the first time in years, I really enjoyed. I even made up new, favourable words for my grouchy Christmas song. Cathy's stocking turned out to be more rewarding than anyone else's. We did not spend a lot, but each and every one spent a lot of thought on the best gift.
And so we approach Balham, gateway to the South. 2009

4 comments:

Tess Kincaid said...

I raise a cup of kindness to you, my dear bloggy friend. Happy New Year!

Willow x

Lynette said...

A very happy new year to you and yours! I'm just relieved to have 2008 over and done with!

Hels said...

I understand car accidents, murder, suicide... they are all perfectly explainable. But slow disease is a ridiculous waste of human experience and talent. Why bother bringing humans into the world if they are only going to fade away in misery from heart failure or kidney disease?

Having got that off my chest, I am delighted that your hospital stay was successful and that the weight loss will eventually be successful :) What has happened since, health-wise?

marc aurel said...

Well Hels I found your comment at last. I am now down to 222 with DR Oz's help. I tighten my belt and cut it shorter every time I run out of holes. I also smoked cigarettes, a pipe and one cigar for the last three weeks, (I'm now back on the patch), which probably reduced craving food somewhat. I read on wikipedia that there is part of the brain, which tells ordinary mortals when they have eaten enough. Obese people have been shown to have a malfunction in that part. Consequently, late last August, I asked my psychiatrist, if the mild anti-psychotic I was taking might also be affecting my brain in this unuseful way. He swithed this med and I emmediately craved food less and rarely ate until I felt sick, as I had done since the late nineties. I was in a play and work became draining and that helped me lose more weight. I still don't exercise much more, but go out walking incessantly, as car driving has become more painfull, because of a long damaged sciatic nerve, (in my accelerator?breaking leg).
I recently, along with the smoking, had a prolonged bout of hypo-mania and that always leads to less sleep and more "compulsive ambulatory obsessions". My wife and employers became quite alarmed and my good doctors have almost restored me to my normal ill health,(!). Since you bury your comment deep in my blog, I doubt that anyone will read this, so I can be quite frank.
I am trying to shoe Cathy into a new car, The Toyota still almost fills our small garage and I want my son to sell and pay a deposit on a car he can share with his mother, as he does now with a two transmission three set of brakes Chrysler Intrepid, I would like to keep our grand touring car another five years, but if she won't buy the Subaru Impreza and insists on ruining the clunker, I am looking into buying the second motorbike of my life. I had one at Oxford, which almost wiped out a familly of five, because of my foolishness. This time I would spend as much as I would on one of those small cars that I am too tall to sit in. And I could only use it from March to September, but it is seriously attractive, although there is a much higher probabilty that this time, I could wipe myself out. I have lived an interesting and very varied life, but would not want to deprive my family of my active involvement. So we shall see if Polaris \Victories or Subarus win. Enough for now. Wife and son have stomach complaints and I must to go buy soup for their souls.