HEALTH UPDATE: If It's Not One Thing, It's Another

Image by Alfred Derks from Pixabay

The first - and best - thing that happened this week was rescheduling my steroid injections. This had been the primary motivator of my drastic diet changes and it paid off.

I rang the hospital, spoke to a lovely woman in the Pain Clinic, and told her my new blood sugar count.

She offered me the choice of going on a waiting list for the doctor I had seen previously or an early morning appointment at the start of next month with a different doctor.

What the phrase Pain Clinic always
conjures up in my twisted mind

I really wanted to stay with the doctor I knew (fear of change and all that), but I also wanted to get this matter resolved ASAP.

So, quite heroically I thought, I opted for the Pain Clinic appointment in June.

Hopefully, these shots into my lumbar facet joints will ease the extreme pain in my back so I can do more vigorous exercises to help keep the discomfort at bay for the long-term.

I should also point out that I made the call to the hospital using my mobile phone - like a real 21st Century person.

The night before I'd woken at about 3am in a panic about not having a landline for the foreseeable future and used my phone to log into my mobile account (which I'd never actually looked at before)... and found I had "free minutes" every month.

Yes, I knew about these mythical things, but always thought there was a catch. There isn't. A minute is a minute.

That's put me at ease about both my appointment at the hospital and using my phone in lieu of the landline.

However, that state of contentment didn't last too long as I was getting texts from the NHS eye clinic about my test the other week - but I couldn't open them, either directly on my phone or through the NHS app.

Then I got a severe-sounding message that said I needed to go for a new test at a different hospital... and I overreacted. To put it mildly.

Picture from Pixabay

Fearing the worst (i.e. I was going blind), I catastrophised straight from calm to Def Con Freak Out.

I called Rachel and she managed to talk me back down, then went off to get in touch with the hospital I was being directed to. 

[The extra embarrassing aspect of this was that I talking to Rachel via a video link and so her entire office could see - and hear - my rather lengthy emotional breakdown.]

It turns out the pictures of the interior of my eye that had been taken the other day weren't good enough and therefore I was being sent to a hospital unit with better equipment. 

Rachel was also told that the "portal" the eye service used to communicate with patients wasn't the same as the general NHS one that I was used to using, and could be a bit "temperamental".

As Rachel calmly explained all this to me, I could feel my mental dials turning down to a normal level again. 

I, honestly, don't know what I would do without my wonderful wife.

Annoyingly, my INR was up again (even higher than last week) which means the weekly check-ups will continue for a while.

And I'm concerned that, if it doesn't sink back down into my target range (through subtle changes in the amount of daily medication I take for it), that might also screw up my spinal injections!

I was specifically asked about INR when I rescheduled my jabs - and told I might need to be tested before the procedure could go ahead.

The fun never ends.

"Half a Year, Half a Year, Half a Year Onward..."

Photo by NASA Hubble Space Telescope on Unsplash

Apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson for butchering his iconic opening to The Charge of The Light Brigade for the sake of a cheeky headline.

This blog has now been on "active duty" for six months now... and seems to be ticking over nicely.

To be honest, it actually feels much longer, like the gravitational pull of a black hole warping my perception of time. On one hand life is racing by at an accelerated rate, while on the other the blog wades slowly through treacle.

I realise this iteration of my blogging 'career' has grown out of the detritus and chaos left by my previous near twenty years of blogging, but I somehow fooled myself into thinking that that would make it easier to stay focussed on what I wanted this new edition to be.

This has not been the case.

Of course, I wish there was more tabletop roleplaying gaming material on it, as that was one of the main reasons for returning to the bloggosphere and it's always been where, I felt, I was the most creative.

Previous blogs have boasted gameable material, monsters, magic, and houserules as and when such tickled my fancy or I was suitably inspired. But so far - for the reasons I mentioned the other day - there's been bupkis.

I also wish my health - both physical and mental - was in a better place, but ultimately that's all down to me ensuring I pull my finger out and take positive steps to alleviate those issues.

The erratic heartbeat of the blog's views/hit count over six months

Behind-the-scenes, a conversation the other month with Tim Brannan (of The Other Side) finally managed to rid myself of my obsession with "hits" and where they were coming from.

Looking at the views individual posts are getting also paints a very different picture to the occasional tidal wave of bots scraping the blog as a whole for whatever it is they think they might find here.

Each article gets a pretty consistent amount of visitors that I'm very happy with. When you look at the blog's widgets charting "popular posts" for the week, the "scores" that separate each are usually only one or two hits apart.

These days I'm much more focussed on getting comments - either directly on the blog or on Facebook (where I promote all my posts). Comments, for me, are the lifeblood of blogging and the best, most genuine, reflection of a true connection with your readership.

Obviously, I'd prefer more people left messages on the actual blog, but Facebook has the bonus that readers can simply react to a post without the necessity of sharing their more detailed thoughts on my nonsense. 

Maybe, eventually, I'll write something revolutionary and suddenly my site will blow up with large-scale, genuine engagement, but in the real world I'm more than content to just keep posting my posts for my circle of friends and acquaintances. 

As this new blog continues to grow, I would like to develop that hardcore band of followers - my posse, if you will.

My goal is for "quality" over "quantity". As I've just said, I'm not striving for hits and clicks. Just a coterie of readers willing to interact with my babble, offer constructive criticism, and engage in conversations.

Look to the right and you will see in the side column (below the current 'featured article') a widget entitled Join The Posse. Under avatars for my current Followers is a button marked Follow.

Simply press that and - all being well - your avatar will join the ranks of this group of brave heroes.

I do think you'll need a Google account for this to work (Blogger, after all, is a Google thing).

Not only does this mean that my expertly crafted prose will appear in your Google "Reading List" but it demonstrates to me that you're interested in my waffle and support what I'm doing (without having to part with a single red cent, sign up to Patreon, or back my Kickstarter).

Since I last brought this subject up, I've had two new recruits join our happy little party: my best mate, Paul, and my old online pal Ivy aka The Happy Whisk.

SO MANY DOGS!!!

I love Newfies - I just wish they didn't drool quite so much! 🤣

A cold wind blew us to Hever Castle yesterday for the return of Castle Canines (formerly Paws At The Castle).

This was the first time the venue had hosted its dog show in over five years (apparently there's a new management team in charge of the site) and it was clearly much in demand as, it appeared, probably more than 50 percent of attendees had brought their own dogs along with them.

In fact, Rachel and I were quite taken aback (in a good way) by the sheer number of dogs wandering the grounds. Neither of us had ever seen so many pooches in one place... and yet Alice still managed to garner plenty of attention.

Our first stop was the 'meet and greet' with the giant Newfoundlands, who we would later see demonstrating their life-saving skills in the freezing cold lake.

Newfy water rescue demonstration

Then it was a general meander through the castle grounds, oohing and aahing at cuteness on display.

During our stay we spotted a former (human) participant in Channel Four's amazing series, The Dog House, as well as - no, honestly - an elderly duck that had appeared in the Disney live-action version of Beauty and The Beast. It was that kind of wonderful, very British, very random event.

The huskies were very chilled

The weather wasn't a friend to the poor people serving puppy ice creams and desserts

However, mid-afternoon, the heavens opened signalling a mass exodus from Castle Canines. We'd managed three hours though, with a lot of walking around and standing, and I'm pretty sure we'd seen everything we wanted to.

Hopefully next year the weather will be better for the dog show and it, once again, becomes a regular fixture of the castle's calendar of events.

It was also great to have simply gotten back to Hever Castle, having missed all of last year's events because of my stupid back problems.

A family portrait

HEALTH UPDATE: Highs, Lows, and Everything In Between

Picture by Ahmet Bozkus

There are some days when I really miss the typewriters and corded telephones of my formative years.

Somehow, I have found myself in a dispute with TalkTalk - our phone and Internet providers - after they accidentally cut off our landline.

This is the culmination of almost a year's worth of exchanges with them about changes they were talking about making to our line.

I was reassured numerous times that I wouldn't have to do anything, our line wouldn't be cut off and, anyway, they couldn't do it without our express permission.

Then, the other day, they cut us off.

A TalkTalk-appointed engineer came out, checked our set-up, and proclaimed that the fault was not at our end.

However, when I went back to TalkTalk the random person I ended up in a conversation with contradicted everything I'd previously been told - including by the engineer - and said we did have to do some rejigging of the set-up ourselves.

The conversation did not go well.

But, ultimately, this is very first world problems and small potatoes compared to the real hardships that several of my friends are currently going through.

So, after the initial fury and moaning to Rachel, I'm kinda letting it slide for the moment. 

Although it is frustrating not being able to call people on the landline (yes, I know that's very 20th Century, but I'm an old geezer and, even now, don't really understand a lot about mobile phones).

In more positive news, when it came to receiving the first of my recent medical test results this week, even the nurse was impressed.

This was for my blood sugars. My target score is 48 (I think this is HbA1c aka glycated haemoglobin) and my previous result had been a shocking 60 (my worst ever, according to a previous nurse).

However, after three months of dieting I've brought my score down to 49.

Now, I've just got to keep going.

Unfortunately, a few days later I went for my regular INR (blood thickness) test and after months of stability, my score was now above my target range... meaning I'm back to weekly tests for a while.

The only reason the nurse and I could come up with for this change was, in fact, the impact of my new diet! 

Swings and roundabouts, eh?

A Relaxing Afternoon Spent With Rescued Farm Animals

Alice and I pose by a Second World War era tractor at the farm

The weather was warm if overcast, so Rachel, Alice and I jumped in the car and headed out to the delightful Little Fant Farm (just outside Maidstone) on Bank Holiday Monday (yesterday).

Admission - and parking - was free, which was a nice touch, but we suspected the farm made up for that with its enormous, and very popular, award-winning outdoor café/restaurant.

In an environment that was both dog- and kid-friendly, there were a number of animals to check out on the farm, ranging from pigs and horses to goats and ducks. All of them are rescues - which made this experience even more perfect.

Nigel

A meeting of great minds

The ducks

Ant and...

...Dec

We had a walk around the farm and then a short stroll down a country road to a neighbouring farm, where we had a lovely chat with that farmer's mother who was feeding two of their horses, Bob and Ted.

All in all, it was a really chilled day out, topped off with a delicious cream tea and pleasant conversation with the couple we shared a table with outside the café.

Time spent around happy animals is always very relaxing and good for the soul.

Even though it wasn't a "tree safari" per se, it was still a day out and I took a small number of evocative pictures of trees and stonework to add to my portfolio.

Bob and Ted

HEALTH UPDATE: Biscuit Club Is Back On The Menu

Image by stevepb from Pixabay

While real life continues to entertain me with alternates to my established "tree safaris", this week has seen several key health-related events that will hopefully show that I'm heading in the right direction.

I've had another (painful) blood test - checking my blood sugar levels - and will get the results, all being well, at the end of next week.

As well as that, I went for my annual eye health check (stinging eye drops and bright lights fired into your eyeballs at point blank range) on Friday, the results of which should take two or three weeks to appear.

However, this week also saw the first meeting of the third iteration of Biscuit Club. The first was my initial NHS run class which lasted about three months, then there was the epic nine-month class which finished just a few weeks ago.

And now this one, run on behalf of the borough council, seems very similar to my previous course, but only runs for 12 weeks. It even happens not just in the same building as the last Biscuit Club but the same room.

There are around a dozen people in this class, and I'd estimate that I'm the second youngest. 

This first week was mainly about an extended warm-up and cool-down, as well as a couple of simple "tests" to serve as a baseline for our assessment at the end of the 12 weeks to see if we've improved. 

But most importantly the hour-long session ended with tea and biscuits. Not that I had any tea (as I don't drink caffeine these days) and I shouldn't really have had any biscuits (because of my diet) but that three-pack of Jammie Dodgers was calling out to me!!!

THROWBACK THURSDAY: #TimFest 2025

A year ago (late April, 2025) we threw a party to mark the 20th anniversary of my life-changing aortic aneurysm, or more accurately to celebrate the extra 20 years (so far) that I have had since the National Health Service (NHS) saved my life.

Here's the pictures - and text - I used to mark the occasion on the blog: 

Much to Rachel's surprise, it was actually my idea to host this event (I am, if you didn't already know, notoriously anti-social). I'd seen that 'new' Doctor Who was 20 years old this year and I realised that my brush with death had come several episodes into the regenerated show's first season.

Up until this year, I have been very nervous - almost superstitious - about even knowing we'd reached another anniversary and I never wanted to know the exact date or too many details of the circumstances (beyond the obvious facts that I had suffered a dissecting aortic aneurysm and then a stroke on the operating table).

But, this year, I finally accepted that two decades was far enough removed from the original, awful, event that maybe it was time to invite friends and family round to share a few drinks, have some nice food, and - at Rachel's suggestion - even raise a bit of money for the Aortic Dissection Awareness charity.

While Rachel - who actually organised the whole shindig, invited the guests, prepared the food, decorated the house etc - called the event "20 Years of Tim", others were calling it "Tim Day" and even "TimFest". 

I'll confess while it was immensely flattering to have all these people turn up to celebrate "me", it was also incredibly overwhelming and every so often I had to find a few calming minutes of quiet solitude with Alice and Obi (my two favouritest dogs in the whole, wide world).

Poor Alice, who is dealing with her own medical issues, seemed rather out of sorts as well, with so many people in "her space", that she didn't even engage in her usual rough and tumble with Obi (she's renowned for bullying him mercilessly, despite being a fraction of his size!).

I was quite gobsmacked by how much Acrobatic Flea (my signature character from our old games of Villains & Vigilantes) branding there was for the day - from the lovely T-shirt that Rachel's parents had made for me to the cup cakes created by the wonderful baker over the road from us.

Just before the group photograph was taken, Rachel gave a short, tearful, speech about how brilliant everyone had been in the wake of my sudden hospitalisation - from the amazing doctors and nurses of the NHS to all our friends who had pitched in to help us get through this. It even got to me, despite having already heard a dry run the night before, and a good number of other attendees. 

On the food table was a small framed poster with a QR code that people could scan, if they wished to, to make a charitable donation to Aortic Dissection Awareness.  

There was light-hearted talk about making Tim Day an annual event, which I did relay to Rachel, but I think one social event in 20 years is probably quite enough.

Top Dogs: Obi, the visitor (front), and our beloved Alice.

FAMILY PORTRAIT: Me, Rachel (holding Alice) and Rachel's parents

There were even garden games available for the young - and young-at-heart

EX-CUPCAKE! We're lucky to have a gifted cake maker live across the road from us

Excuse me, there's a Flea on my cupcake!

A mere fraction of the food and drink Rachel provided on the day

While the event was never intended as a "gift giving" day I was stunned
by the unexpected gifts I did receive.

Where's All The Roleplaying Stuff Then?

Photo by Nika Benedictova

When I launched this blog last November (with a hefty backlog of material preloaded) it came with the implicit suggestion - if not an outright statement - that Cowboys, Capes, and Claws would be largely a roleplaying game blog.

Well, that was the idea in my head anyway.

There have been general roleplaying posts, but primarily the blog has been - to date - film reviews and trailers, comic book news, wargames bits and bobs, and some coverage of TV shows and my meandering health issues thrown in for good measure.

Those who read my old blogs will know that sometimes I'd tack gaming material on the end of my film reviews (e.g. monsters and magic items that had appeared in the movie, translated into my own old school mechanics), but there has been none of that so far here.

And I'm very conscious of that absence of "added value".

The big thing - and this has been alluded to in most of the gaming-related posts I have published here - is that I simply don't know what system I want to focus all my attention on these days, what game I want to run for the Tuesday Knights (my gaming group).

The strongest contender is Twilight Sword, the anime and video game-inspired fantasy roleplaying system coming soon from Two Little Mice.

The full game is due to be released to backers of the crowdfunder (such as I) in the next few months.

However, a beta PDF of the core rules - largely absent the setting material, which will be in a second book (all part of the crowdfunding campaign) - has been delivered. And I like what I've seen. It's simple, and seemingly elegant, but I'm still not sure if it offers everything I'm looking for in a game.

But then again, does any rules set?

I tried kludging together my own RPG system a few years ago, to cover everything I wanted in a game mechanically, and it turned out to be a Frankengame with an ease of accessibility somewhere in the region of Phoenix Command or Advanced Squad Leader.

While I knew how it all worked and how each subsystem meshed with the others, it would have been a nightmare to explain to our group - especially as we generally lean towards the more "rules casual" approach to gaming.

The rules and themes of Twilight Sword are quite different from my usual offering, but that just needs a mental adjustment upon my behalf, as I'm sure the players will adapt without thinking or complaint - as long it's clear what they need to do.

Therefore, I don't want to start "tinkering" - coming with scenario-specific houserules, new magical items or monsters - until I have the full game in hand (the actual books, rather than the PDFs) and have probably played more than a handful of sessions with "rules as written".

That said, I'm also lining up at a small number of back-up offerings, in case I decide Twilight Sword isn't actually what I'm looking for. The last couple of times I tried to run games at our table (
Shadowdark and Villains & Vigilantes) both crashed-and-burned because I wasn't happy with the way things were shaping up.

Therefore, I really, really want to be certain that the game I choose is the right one before I present my next campaign to the Tuesday Knights.

I have a great deal of lost trust to regain. We only meet up 10 or 12 times a year, so each session is precious and can't (in my mind) be wasted on something that isn't going anywhere.

And this, gentle reader, is why I haven't written anything system-specific on the blog yet. Because I don't have a system to write to.

So, bear with with me, please keep reading the silliness I post (and commenting when you feel so inclined) and one day... hopefully in the not-too-distant future... there will be useful gaming material on the blog.

Along with film reviews and trailers, comic book news, wargames bits and bobs, and some coverage of TV shows and my meandering health issues thrown in for good measure.

HEALTH UPDATE: Long Live Biscuit Club!

Photo by Centre for Ageing Better on Unsplash

No "tree safari" this weekend as Rachel was away for most of it, on a well-deserved spa break with some of her old university pals.

Then when she returned today she had to plunge headfirst into working on an important report for a client that she was given on Friday and needed to be done by this evening.

However, some good news on the fitness front for me. Remember I said a few weeks back that Biscuit Club had come to an end and I was looking for a replacement?

Well, I've finally managed to secure a place on a new - very similar - free, 12-week course being run by the borough council... at the same venue as previous Biscuit Club!

This kicks off at the end of the month.

Rachel and I do wonder though, as this is a local council-run course (presumably paid for out of our council tax), perhaps it won't end with free tea and biscuits! Will it even be a new Biscuit Club???

Having now established contact with the not-for-profit trust that runs these events on the council's behalf, I'm pretty sure I'm now finally set for a long-term exercise regime.

I learned that this new postural stability class is run by the same lady that already runs the council's weekly exercise classes at the Angel Centre, in Tonbridge (for those of us with mobility or fitness issues).

So once I've finished the free, three-month, course I hope to be able to easily switch to one of the paid classes at the sports centre.

"NANU NANU" AND HOPPY EASTER!!!

As part of my current "get fit" kick, I was quite adamant that I didn't want chocolate for Easter, so Rachel and I exchanged non-edible gifts this morning before heading out for an Easter Egg hunt event.

I got Rachel a beautiful, tiny (and working) ceiling lamp for her latest dolls house project, while she got me a box set of Mork & Mindy DVDs (it has an egg on the cover!) and a miniature table tennis set.

Rachel confessed that when the ping pong set was ordered, she hadn't realised quite how small it was!

Knowing my "no chocolate or sweets" request - and my poor willpower when it comes to such treats - Rachel's parents got us some delightful Easter socks instead, which we wore today on our exhausting adventure.

I'll tell you more about that - and share of pictures of the 'celebrities' we met - later on, when we're not so tired out. 

Please be aware that Rachel, Alice, and I were not participating in the egg hunt, just the other fun activities that were going on around it.

Eggs-ellent Easter Socks

TREE SAFARI: Chiddingstone Castle

Cherry blossom avenue at Chiddingstone Castle

This afternoon, our regular "tree safari" walk found us at Chiddingstone Castle (which looks like a stunning stately home indoors, but - because of Alice - we could only wander around the grounds). 

The first thing I have to say was, despite now being Spring and the start of British Summer Time, it was blooming cold. And that's from someone who usually isn't bothered by the cold. The wind chill factor was really getting into my aged bones and I was not a particularly happy camper for much of the walk.

The main treason Rachel chose Chiddingstone for today's walk was the avenue of Japanese cherry blossoms that were in full bloom. Rachel knows I love cherry blossom (which is why we have a young cherry tree planted outside our house, although it will be decades before it can rival the beauties here... or in Japan).

Freaky bridge - not for me!

At the end of the avenue is an arched wooden bridge over a lake, but it's one of those "open" bridges that freak me out 'cos of my balance/vertigo issues after my stroke.

So we diverted round the end of the lake instead, where there's a wonderful rock formation - and a tree with signs of fairy habitation (well, it has a couple of large openings in it!).

The "fairy tree"

I am totally smitten by this rock formation at the end of the lake

This little rivulet that runs through the rocks helps fill the lake

Alice had a lovely time, meeting a number of adorable fellow dogs as well as attracting her usual coos and cuddles from friendly, dog-loving humans who always mistake her for a puppy and are then amazed when we tell them she's nearly 12.

After our walk, I insisted we have a bite to eat in the stately home's café. As we had to sit in the courtyard (under cover) - again because of Alice - I took advantage of the box of blankets provided and spread one over my legs, like a pensioner.

Rachel ordered herself a cream tea while I had a hot chocolate accompanied by a couple of crumpets with raspberry jam.

The locally-sourced jam was incredibly delicious so when Rachel was settling our bill I asked her to get us a pot of the jam as well. 

Once we got home (it was so nice to be in the warmth again!) I added "crumpets" to the shopping list, so I could replicate the experience I had so recently enjoyed in the courtyard of the Chiddingstone Castle café.

Mmmmmm, tasty jam!

Hiking Up A Hill To Touch A Tree

Our objective: the majestically scrawny tree at the centre of the ridgeline 

As promised, the tree safaris have resumed.

Rachel, Alice and I went for a walk around the extensive grounds of the Penshurst Place estate yesterday, allowing me to take more pictures of interesting-looking trees and a surprising number of small lakes.

I think these bodies of water were private fishing lakes.

The afternoon's ramble turned out to be not only my longest walk to date - about 45 or 50 minutes-worth of exercise - but also the most challenging.

I spotted a lone tree at the top of a hill and ambitiously declared that as my objective. 

Up the hill we go!

We hiked all the way up the hill, then left the beaten track, waded through deep grass (only Alice's head was visible at times) and made sure both Rachel and I touched the tree - to prove (to ourselves) that we had made it.

After admiring the gorgeous landscape arrayed before us, we headed back down the hill, our target now being the Porcupine Pantry Café (and gift shop) in the grounds of the stately home.

After a rewarding bite to eat (I had a gorgeous sausage roll and Rachel a slice of cake), we wound our way home, but were both incredibly knacked by all the exertion - hence my posting this now, rather than last night. It was a good, satisfying exhaustion though, buoyed by the knowledge of a job well done.

Sure, it's not mountaineering, but I'm still slowly building up my strength, stamina and stability.

I made it - the view across the estate from up there was magnificent

HEALTH UPDATE: Biscuit Club Is Over!

I got a certificate for completing my Postural Stability Course (aka Biscuit Club)

After nine months of weekly classes (barring Christmas and weeks when our trainer was unavailable), Biscuit Club is over.

It's rather sad, really.

While I am proud of my 100 per cent attendance record, I'm going to miss our weekly get-togethers, my two inspiring fellow participants, our primary coach Caroline, and her two volunteer assistants, Barbara and Sheila.

Those months of increasingly arduous exercise have seen me turning up, early on, in a wheelchair and then - over the weeks - regain the ability to walk "normally".

I'm also definitely more stable on my feet; it was my frequent falling over that sent me on this course in the first place.

The osteoarthritis diagnosis came later and, let's be honest, I couldn't have been in a better position to face that issue head-on.

Without this course, Rachel and I are adamant I'd still be in the wheelchair... with all the additional complications to everyday life that that would have brought with it.

For our final session this week, we had a truncated exercise class, then everyone gathered for tea, cake, and biscuits and a good old chinwag. Although I'm now on a diet (also part of this new fitness regime) I allowed myself a "cheat day" with a couple of chocolate biscuits and a small slice of lovely chocolate cake.

In the short time I've been on this "no snack" diet (what is it, six weeks? Seven weeks? I've stopped counting now), I've lost over a stone in weight and it was remarked upon in the class that my appearance has noticeably changed. I confess my t-shirts are feeling slightly baggier and my shorts aren't as tight these days, either.

I'm now in the process of trying to get myself enrolled on an exercise course that the borough council runs at the Angel Centre in Tonbridge, but my initial emails and phone messages were ignored (which was rather frustrating) and so now I've tried filling in an online form that will hopefully open the door for me.

There's also the possibility that the charity which ran Biscuit Club might have another course beginning soon or even that Caroline will have a window in her hectic schedule to start a new pilates class that I could sign up for.

In the meantime, I must remember to do regular exercises on my own and - now that our run of weekend events is over for the moment - get back to my weekly "tree safari" walks with Rachel and Alice.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Carpe That Diem! Or "I'm An Idiot!"

I try not to dwell on regrets, I've long accepted the fact that nothing good comes from such negativity, as long as you learn something.

However, one of my biggest regrets - from which the main thing I've learned is my natural-born laziness is one of my most self-sabotaging traits - is never following up on the letter I received in September, 2002, from Hodder & Stoughton.

I'd always quite fancied myself as something of a writer and, at that time, had what I thought was a pretty decent idea for a novel.

So, I drafted a synopsis and sent it off to Hodder & Stoughton, having carefully picked them out from the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook as being a publisher that might be interested in my idea.

I got a letter back on July 31 asking for three sample chapters.

These were written and dispatched and then, on September 11, 2002, I got a letter back from the submissions editor.

You can read the important information below:

It was an amazingly positive way to say " no, thank you, but..." and I should have been encouraged by the letter.

You know what I did with it? What thriller project I wrote next to send to the publishers?

Nothing.

Sweet Fanny Adams.

Nada.

Zilch.

Honestly, now, I have no idea why, except, I expect I was distracted by drink, girls, TV, cinema, the usual ephemeral nonsense that catches my fickle attention.

I'm not printing this letter to say: "Look at me, what a great writer I am", nor am I seeking any sympathy (as there was no one to blame but myself).

Rather I want to emphasise what an idiot I was.

This is a lesson to all you young whippersnappers out there, to my godson Alec and his sister Bettany, to Paul's girls, and all the children of this blog's readers: don't be like me.

When life gives you lemons, don't file them away then go to the store and buy lemonade.

Take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way.

Carpe Diem!

At the very least, I should have used that letter to try and get myself an agent... which in turn could have kept me better focused on my professed desire to become a published author.

The damage my stroke did to my concentration - and other aspects of my brain - pretty much guarantees this ship has sailed, but if any good is to come from all this, I want it to stand as an object lesson that others can learn from.

The galling thing about my gross stupidity - and laziness - is the number of films I continue to see that feature ideas very similar to the ones I had way back in my proto-novel with the working title of The Donner Project.

HEALTH UPDATE: Germ Ping-Pong

Image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay

About a month and a half ago, Rachel returned from a trip to London bearing the nascent germs of a heavy cold, which - in the following week or so - she then passed on to me.

This wiped me out for a couple of weeks, even though I still made it to Biscuit Club (I had to keep up my one hundred percent attendance record, after all).

Then the other day I appeared to have returned the germs to Rachel as she fell victim to a horrendous cough that, earlier this week, she kindly handed back to me.

And this was a nasty cough. I was pretty much bedridden for a couple of days, having lost almost an entire night's sleep, and - while it has been easing this weekend - has still been playing merry havoc with my fragile body.

Constant wracking of my chest and throat has caused extreme aches and pains in weakened muscles still suffering from my sundry other infirmities. This has not been fun. 

Hence, the paucity of posts on the blog in the last few days - and possibly into next week - as I'm not really in the right frame of mind for constructing critiques or framing my thoughts into coherent mini-essays. The simple act of focussing on anything for any period of time is hard when you're constantly being interrupted by coughing fits that shake you to your core.

Hopefully, this will pass soon and 'normal' service can resume.