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| A typical Venetian scene |
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| White heron on the Grand Canal |
We
had a great time in Venice the first week of March. I had taken over 1,600 photos! Ridic!
It would take me a fortnight to sort through them all! (See Cool Places 2 on Wordpress
for a selection i).
Our return flight during a clear night enabled us to see several
cities lit up, including London and Sheffield.
We
got home earlier than anticipated to a freezing cold house. We turned the heating on, had a cuppa to warm
up then went to bed.
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| Plane wing at twilight |
My
sleeping had improved somewhat but despite a good night I felt fuzzy the next
day with a headache. I motivated myself
to unpack and wash clothes. The weather
looked nice first thing but turned horrid.
The day ended with a lovely sunset presaging a brighter day for Tuesday.
I
felt achy and groggy again but got up and finished off my ‘Memoirs’ blog for February. While inserting photos and links, I noticed
that WP had gone bonkers – it had posted my entry about Ulverston 300 times, in
the wrong place! I thought I would have
to delete the whole thing and became quite annoyed and stressed. I was on the verge of doing so but got scared
in case it deleted the whole of my account.
Instead, I deleted the offending posts one by one – this took ages and
felt like doing a work. Then I discovered all my previous blogs had been
reposted! What was going on?
I
decided to leave it and get out in the sun.
I cleaned up in the garden and made a pixie path sort of by accident –
cute but the cats would think it was for them which needed some thought.
In
the evening I rang mum. She sounded fine
but said her legs were very weak. She
knew herself that she didn’t use them enough though. I asked if she had rung the Parkinson’s’
nurse. She said she spoke to a nice
woman who gave her the number but they hadn’t got back so I encouraged her to
follow it up. Afterwards, I felt
drained. When I rang her the following
week, she sounded fine and had been out of the house for one of her tiny walks,
but still whinged about her legs. I
forgot to nag her about seeing the Parkinson’s nurse.
Wednesday
morning, I didn’t feel like doing anything and the weather was crap again so I
pottered about and spent time thinking. I
reflected that despite better sleeping, I still suffered from fatigue. I mused that it might be due to a year and a
half of lack of sleep. I hoped this was
the case rather than a physical reason as I could not bear the idea of visiting
the doctors again for tests. Once more, I vowed not to be too hard on myself
and be glad I did stuff even when I didn’t want to.
In
the afternoon, I had aromatherapy which was very pleasant. On the
way home, I saw our young neighbour stood on her doorstep. I stopped for a chat and had a look at her
new baby. She had a friend there who
said she didn’t like Italy as the food was all garlic and tomatoes.
On
Thursday I still felt quite down. I decided
I needed to get out more and see people.
I resolved to try volunteering in a charity shop or something.
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| Drawing of a sea peony |
At
drawing class in the evening, we spent the whole session on a blown up drawing
of a seed pod. I found it quite hard but
my 3D effects were improving and mine was not the worst effort. I drew a sea peony and on reflection, decided
it was my best drawing of the term.
I
walked home with the two women who lived near me. We stayed up watching politics programmes and
the next day I overslept. We agreed we
went to bed too late watching that nonsense on Thursday nights.
I
spent Friday on spring cleaning, shopping and sorting holiday photos. I also started writing posts about Venice for
Cool Places 2 on Wordpress (LINK).
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| Nik Turner doing his stuff |
On
Saturday night, we went for food at the wine bar then to the local club to see Nik
Turner. As a sound check was in
progress, we sat in the bar and chatted to random people.
When we got into the main room a hippie from Leeds and his mate sat next to
us (I had noticed him come into the bar and thought he looked like a character
out of the Young Ones but he turned out to be really nice).
I went out for a cig and when I got back they
had gone. They were soon replaced by a
couple who sat munching crisps while taking up all the leg space under the
table.
A boring support act came on at 9 o’clock. Nik and band didn’t appear until 10, but they
did a long set and it finished at 12.15.
It was really good and we even danced a bit! I took terrible phone photos.
I
didn’t feel too horrendous the next day although predictably tired. We pottered about doing small jobs, sorting
photos and cooking. By bedtime, I was
very sleepy and had a long (though of course interrupted) sleep and struggled
to wake up on the Monday morning.
I
spent the morning drafting my ‘Memoirs’ before my walking friend came round. We headed out for lunch. We looked at various eateries before settling
on the pub in the square for a sharing platter.
Her foot still hurt, in a different place due to walking funny but
otherwise she said she was okay. I told
her how good it was to get out on a Monday and my plans to do a bit of
volunteering as I thought it would help my mid-week depression slumps. We then went round some charity shops and I
asked in my favourite one if they needed volunteers. They said they were waiting for info packs
and that they would ring me when they arrived.
We returned to the house for coffee and chatted about social media.
On
Tuesday I struggled to get up. Whilst
reading the papers, we laughed at an article about street food – apparently
hipsters now drink out of watering cans – you can’t make this stuff up!
I
spent much of the rest of week on spring cleaning, sorting holiday photos and
various errands. I still felt very tired
after activity so I took it easy when I needed to. I also wrote posts for Cool Places 2 and
practiced guitar. I tried following
finger plucking on Andy Guitar but it was too fast for me. I worked on scales and more songs from the
black book.
Wednesday
morning, my partner woke me early as requested, as I needed to go to the big
town to stock on various essentials.
When I returned home, I felt very tired and ached everywhere.
On
Thursday afternoon my friend with the interesting ailments visited. She seemed okay except her arm was still a
bit stiff and painful. She had started
driving lessons and said they were going well.
She told me that her 40th started well with lunch with her
mum and sister. However, in the evening
she had planned to go out with friends but one of them brought her child so they
had to stay in.
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| Tricky liquorice allsorts |
At
drawing class, we drew liquorice
allsorts which was a lot trickier than it looked, but we got to eat them
afterwards.
Later, I showed my partner my
drawing which he said was good (I thought the large square one was okay but the
scaling was wrong).
After
another average night I awoke at 5 a.m. when the birds were tweeting. I felt aggrieved then realised it was officially
the start of spring so I relaxed and lay there listening to them. I then fell asleep again until my partner
came in and woke me saying ‘the sun has got a spot on it’. I posted on FB ‘there’s a little black spot
on the sun today’ and got a few ‘likes’.
Friday
20th March proved to be an auspicious day indeed! The vernal equinox and a solar eclipse!
The
day started quite bright despite a forecast of clouds. My partner found infrared filters which meant
we could look at the sun and agreed that the bedroom was the best place to
watch the eclipse. I suggested he take
photos but then regretted it as he hogged the window and the filter for much of
the time. Still, I got a few views, from
the early stages of the sun having a chunk bitten out of it until the 89% or so
coverage at about 9.22. It became eerie
as darkness descended, spooking the birds.
A strange wind blew even though the clouds weren’t moving. As the moon moved off, the crescent sun
appeared on the opposite side and brightness returned quickly.
The
weekend stayed fine and sunny. On Saturday, I continued with spring cleaning
before going out at tea time. We enjoyed
the early evening sunshine whilst walking to the station and got the train to the
big town. We had a posh dinner of fillet steaks and prosecco before going to
the local theatre. I picked up our tickets from the box office when I spotted
the mayor insisting on paying (not for him the trappings of power although he
was wearing his chain). He sat on the
front row with his mate, while we were on the next row. He chatted for ages about the foremost poet
in the Calder delta which we found hilarious!
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| Hotel tiles |
The
performance of Neverwhere by the young drama school was really good with
impressive acting and choreography. The
play overran and we missed our train. I
said it was cheaper to have another drink and wait for the next one rather than
get a taxi. We considered a small local
pub, but a lairy disco therein put us off so I suggested the hotel on the
corner.
Although now a chain hotel, I
had wanted to have a look since it featured in Andrew Martin’s Jim Stringer
novels. We admired the features including lovely tiles round the bar and the huge
billiard room at the back (now a conference room of course) before boarding
the packed, loud last train home.
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| Hotel billiard room |
Sunday,
we awoke late. The glorious, sparkly day
motivated us to go out again. As I was getting ready, I realised there was no
hot water. We fiddled with the boiler to
no avail so I booked an engineer appointment for the next day.
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| Small stone steps |
We
walked up to the art studios. There were
a few stalls outside and we saw an old mate but we were not sure what it was in
aid of. We went in to see my drawing
teacher’s exhibition. The mayor was
there with his chain, again and we chatted to him about the play.
We
then went into local woods, taking a lower path that had been blocked in autumn. We followed it as far as it went then carried
on up the lane until the way ahead became private. We took a flight of stone steps up to the
next lane and onto a route we knew to the edge of the crags.
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| Miniscule plant life in the cracks |
We sat on a bench and I took photos of miniscule plant life in the cracks of the picnic
table whilst trying to fend off all the dogs.
We then went back via the usual riverside path until we came to the
bridge where we normally cross. We then
stayed on the east side path. It took us
passed what looked like a swamp, full of rubbish – not very pleasant.
In the
evening, I cooked pies and pudding in the oven to warm us up and retired to bed
early to get cosy. I rose early the next
day and made porridge for brekkie to take away the icy chill. Thankfully, the engineer arrived at 8.40. He clumped about but did the job and said it
was the fan.
Very
early Tuesday morning, it was very bright and the birds were tweeting. I ignored them, fell into a doze then overslept
so I felt a bit rushed getting ready to go out.
My walking friend arrived at 12 and we set off for the station (slowly
as her foot was still stiff although she said it was better. She had been walking the day before which I
said was a bit rash). We got the train
to the nearest city and made our way to Primark. I bought a few essentials while she said it
was all crap but found some scrunchies near the till.
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| Scary Easter bunny |
Outside the main entrance, I became
dumbstruck by a horrific diorama. The Easter bunnies would scare any small
child. Particularly the one which rose and fell within a green mound. My friend did not understand how I found them
so freaky. We then did the rounds of
charity shops with little to show for it, before having lunch at the Italian
cafe. When we got back to our town, we walked
the long way round in search of cat litter before returning to my house for
coffee.
That
night, it took me ages to get to sleep, only to be woken at 2 a.m. by a stupid
chicken. I put an earplug in and
eventually got back to sleep but it was intermittent and I felt terrible the
next morning. I managed a bit of housework
and planned to do gardening as it was sunny again but I was so tired after the worst
sleep I’d had for months. Instead, I
wrote ‘Cannaregio’ for CP2 (which
received seven ‘likes’ overnight!) before going to my aromatherapy appointment. It was pleasant of course although she found
a sore spot in my lower back which took me by surprise.
At
bedtime, my partner said I looked funny.
I said I was just really tired.
Thankfully, I had a better night with some periods of deep sleep. Consequently, on Thursday morning I had a fuzzy
head, my arms felt very heavy and it was hard work to motivate myself to get
up.
We
watched the latest news following the airbus crash on Tuesday. Apparently, one pilot had left the cockpit
and couldn’t get back in. I concluded
that the co-pilot had some kind of breakdown (it then transpired that he was
indeed mentally ill with depression). I
reflected that it hadn’t greatly affected me emotionally as it was a random
event. But I had only flown back over the Alps a few weeks before and I may
never do so with such pleasure ever again.
In
the afternoon, my friend with the interesting ailments arrived. She told me about her recent night out to
make up for her disappointing 40th birthday which sounded good. After she left, I weeded the garden then
swept up. Despite the sun, the wind kept blowing the leaves around but I was
pleased with what I achieved in a short space of time.
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| Cabbage patch me |
When
I got home, I showed my partner my drawing and he said ‘who’s that?’ I said
‘me’. He asked ‘who drew it?'’ I’ did’ I
replied. Then added ‘that tells me
everything if you couldn’t even tell it was me.’ He said that wasn’t true and now he looked at
it, it was pretty good. I said yes but
it doesn’t look like me and we talked about how if you draw yourself it comes
out backwards and how did you do it the right way round?
The
next morning I looked through all my drawings for the term. It was hard to see how I had developed as the
subjects were quite varied but I realised my scale, perspective and depth
skills had improved.
My
sister had been working in Leeds that day and in the evening, I met her at the
station. We had dinner at the Turkish
restaurant. Halfway through the meal, they
asked us very nicely, to move (to a better) table and gave us free baklavas in
return. We chatted about Mum and her not
admitting she had depression.
After,
we went for a drink at the pub on the corner.
My partner joined us straight from work and we stayed until last orders.
On
Saturday, I gave up trying to sleep in despite a mediocre night. My sister had an open ticket and planned to
spend the day with us. I suggested she check
the train times. It was a good job
because due to engineering works, there were detours at Donny so she realised
she would have to get a train at noon. After
breakfast, we sat chatting about my late brother and the randomness of
cancer. My partner had disappeared back upstairs. I went to see if he was okay. He said yes, but very tired. I left him to rest and went out with my
sister to visit the ‘great little shops’.
She really liked the posh gallery but after visiting a couple of other
shops she said she could get the same type of thing in Greenwich market, or
better yet Turkey. I showed her round some of the sights in the centre of town
before going to the station and waited with her until her train arrived.
When
I got back I sat looking at the rain: it started out horrid that morning,
brightened up just as my sister got on the train, then chucked down again. I took it easy the rest of the day while my partner
tried to get his Raspberry pi to work. In
the evening we watched DVDs including an imaginative Belgian low budget
offering. I commented on the fact that these
cheap films are obviously crowd-funded nowadays, meaning the production values
improved as it went along.
On
Sunday my partner carried on working on his Raspberry pi while I fixed and made
jewellery. I spent Monday on chores and
worked on ‘Memoirs’ before going to the surgery in the afternoon for the awful
test that ladies have to have. The nurse
was very nice but failed to get anywhere.
She suggested making an appointment with a female doctor instead but I didn’t
really want to face a repeat performance.
For
the third night running, I found it hard to sleep. I tried to find a way
through the jumbled thoughts crowding my mind.
Although I did practice various relaxation techniques with varying degrees
of effectiveness, I returned to practicing structured meditation. Unfortunately, this did not result in improved
sleep. The howling gale did not help,
although it was not the main reason; my sleeping had just got worse again.
I
resolved to continue with meditation, and my positive activities, but wondered
if there was even more I could do such as returning to some of my writing and
other money making ideas. I tried not to
worry about money. However, the fact
that I did not earn any affected me. If
I found a way without going back to a stressful job, I might feel better. I also decided to treat the deterioration in
my sleep as a temporary blip rather than a permanent state, as I did with my
physical illnesses earlier in the year.
Tuesday,
I received a communiqué from our local labour party candidate. We had a laugh at the ‘I♥ NHS’ motif but then
admitted that while we took the piss we would most likely vote for him to kick the
Tories out.
I
waited for a lull in the storm still raging outside to go up to my walking
friend’s house. We chatted about spring
cleaning, horrid lady checkups, politics and money. She was still limping and said she needed to
go shopping so I walked her down the steps.
When
I got home I wrote ‘Hidden corners of San Marco’ for CP2. In the evening I rang Mum. She sounded the same as usual but whinged
about the weather again. She was looking
forward to Easter though as various brothers and sisters were due to visit. I eschewed the prospect of travelling over
myself due to the rail disruption predicted for the weekend. I hoped that things would improve during April
and I would feel strong enough to brave the journey...
i WWW.hepdenerose2.wordpress.com
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| Scala Contarini dell bovolo |
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