Bills Posts

I actually managed to get out today.

My intention was to get to the nearest bus stop, but when I reached Stokes Road, I was confronted with this.

There’s obviously been a bit of a communications breakdown, as it appears that no noe had told the bus service. I was watching this, heard a bus behind me and turned round to see a No. 9 reversing in to a side street.

I ended up walking into town. I managed to get to the Post Office to do an Amazon return. I even got to the waterfront. Not a lot happening there. But I was thinking about our trip out yesterday, and how nice it was to see a few ships moving around. It reminded me that I should make an effort to get to the sea wall when the weather is a bit (actually, quite a bit) warmer.

I did my facebook post in the Gallery Cafe. It worked very well the folding keyboard was a delight to use. The first FB post in about 10 weeks, which was nice. The cafe was playing classical music at just the right volume – not intrusive, but there. Really quite pleasant.

I talked earlier about a communications problem at the road closure. I think it was worse than I thought. On my return trip, the closure had been lifted and the offending van was just sittiing by the roadside.

It was really nice to get out.

For whatever reason, I was going to give Elayne a lift to the Ferry. It didn’t happen, but we did reach the point where we were sat in the car.

Having reached a point where the decision was made that Elayne wasn’t going to the ferry, I looked at Elayne and said “We are in the car. Shall we just go and spend a bit of time at the waterfront”? We drove to Stokes bay and just parked up for a few minutes. I even got out of the car, and stood in the air for a minute or two – it felt good.

There were quite a few people out walking. Quite understandable. Even though there was a chilly breeze, the sun was warm, but the air was cold. Classically good walking weather.

The Solent was busy. There was a mid-sized container ship heading in to southampton, and a small oil tanker heading out, and then a car carrier was coming in. I’ve just done a bit of research on the The Viking Queen, the car carrier. It can carry up to 7,000 “standard cars” – which really surprises me. I didn’t take a picture of it as we were pulling away, but the next time I am in a position to, I will photograph a similar ship. I also learned a bit about their configuration, as I think they ride very high in the water, and look like they could be unstable, which they obvioously aren’t Here’s a link to some pictures of the vessel I saw today. https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/photos/of/ships/shipid:729334/shipname:VIKING%20QUEEN?order=date_uploaded.

It was really nice to get out. Even if only for a few minutes.

I am not suggesting for one minute that I am not ill. I have had a persistent chronic cough since well before retirement started. A friend has suggested that it could be an intolerance – I think that is a possibility. I have a Drs appointment next week, I’ll raise it as a possibility.

I’ve had two and a bit weeks now of retirement. Now, I have had periods of leave longer than this, but they have usually been because we are going on holiday, or because of Christmas. Either way, at the end of it I’d be going back to work. Not this time. For the best part of 50 years, my life has had a structure to it. Get up, go to work. That’s stopped. Perhaps that is having a bigger psychological impact on me than I anticipated?

I’ve had lots of plans for retirement, things that I want to do. I could perhaps understand not getting on with those plans since retiring – I’m having a real break. Yeah, like – no.

Yesterday, I raised a todo list. This morning I said to Elayne “I’m going back to work”. It was kind of said in jest. But at some point I have to start putting some structure back in my life, even if it isn’t very good. Also, when does this stop? I’m being pathetic.

As it stands at the moment, formally, I’m still in employment. I don’t officially finish until the 2nd of Jan. I’ve felt like I’ve just been on a bit of Chrsitmas leave, so not that much different to normal.

That’ll change on Frday, but I’m getting used to it now. I just need to bring a little bit of discipline to things. Several times over the last few days I’ve forgotten what day of the week it is. That’s been a bit frustrating because it has meant that I have missed a couple of radio nets.

Elayne keeps a very disciplined calendar. I’m going to have to do the same.

Still coughing. I nearly went out today. Didn’t quite make it.

Somehow, a ccouple of months ago, I picked up a cough. It’ll be alright, I thought, a few days it’ll go. Nope. A few weeks later I still have it. Time for the Doctors. Antibiotics, that’ll do it. 5 days worth, the symptoms ease but don’t go, and then resurface. Back to the Doctors, another round, they ease and at one point, I thought it had gone, but no, it came back with a bit of a vengeance. This time, i get a face to face with the doctor and a reference for a chest x-ray. Luckily, that came back clear. Another appointment with the doctor, this time to be confronted with a “We aren’t sure how to diagnose this” The thing they came up with was “Chronic Persistent cough” which can habve any one of a number of causes.

All of that is OK, but it leaves me in something of a limbo. I haven’t left the house for a week. Everytime I move, I cough. Now I’m on an inhaler, which is helping. What I haven’t had is fresh air. I need to get out. Perhaps starting with short walks, trying to build up energy.

I’ve reached a point of frustration now. Perhaps moving a bit will help.

I’m sorry. Another short post. I didn’t go anywhere today. It is almost a week since I last left the house. Not a good state to be in.

I nearly missed posting today. I have been having a discussion with chatGPT, about my political views and beliefs.

All interesting stuff, and I may post a conclusion later, but for now I need to post this before midnight to keep the count going.

I’ll be honest. The picture is from a few years ago, but it serves to illustrate my point.

That point is at the moment, I have practically nothing to sasy about what is going on in town, because I haven’t been out. Apart from a quick trip to the ferry pick up point in the car on Tuesday, I haven’t been out of the house this week, and so have had to resort to old material today.

Apart from feeling rough (although I am hopeful that there are signs of easing symptoms – very slight signs) it doesn’t help that the outside temperature is a low 3C, and the seriously bitter easterly wind has been making it feel like a consistent -3C windchill. Making me very unlikely to go for a walk, even if I did have the energy.

We have had a nice Christmas, and today was a nice relaxing day for Elayne who definitely took advantage to trying to do as little as possible.

Tea was a scaled-down version of yesterday’s meal. I think we will probably be eating like that for a few days. That’s absolutely fine, it was delicious. I’m assuming a degree of normality for tomorrow, but I admit, I’m not entirely sure what that will look like.

What ever, I hope you have had a pleasant couple of days.

May I start by saying that I wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas.

It has been both a happy day, full of cheer, happinesss, laughter and the delightful Aurora. But, also as he same time tinged with a hint of sadness. I feel immensely frustrated that I have not been able to help Elayne at all. She has been an absolute stalwart. For that and other reasons, I feel that I have let her down.

We must look forward to the New Year, and get over this lump. The first two and a bit weeks of my retirement, have not been memorable. At one point even Elayne was saying “Go back to work”. I don’t want that.

I want to get over this wretched illness and to be able to look to start doing what I want. That may sound selfish, I suppose it is, but there you go.

It seems that every so often, I forget to do a post and so the count goes back to zero.

Last night then, was a bit different. I made a deliberate decision not to do a post.

Let’s just say that I have been feeling a bit rough, for several weeks now, and last night I just didn’t feel up to it. I really don’t like to go into too much detail. But, it appears that the problem may be a resurgence of an issue I had as a teen. The doctors are on it, so let’s see how things go.