Simply a moment - March

It is 9pm Saturday 22nd March. We are sitting at a table in a rugby club because we are part of the celebrations for an engagement. The music is very loud, as it always is on these occasions. My leg is hurting and I am at my limit of control. I am not at home, there are lots of people that I don't know and Mr M has gone outside for a cigarette so I am ALONE. Then several things happen very quickly and I learn that.... well let me describe the moment.

I can feel the panic rising inside me and I want to leap up and rush out of the building but I can't move because to move is to attract notice. Mr M comes back in through the door and the panic subsides. My phone whistles to tell me I have received a text. It is my daughter answering my plaintive message to say that the music is loud. "Have they fed you?" she asks, "Boo says if they haven't fed you yet then you must leave straight away. Tell them your daughter was attacked by an eagle. Now Boo is rolling about laughing."
I read the message to Mr M and we both laugh out loud and now I know I can stay for a while longer. The moment of fear has passed.

It occurs to me that you might wonder why the phrase "tell them your daughter was attacked by an eagle" would make us laugh quite so much. Here is the background story.

On Wednesday my daughter did a sponsored silence at work. She told her colleagues that if they could raise £100 in sponsorship she would be silent for the whole working day. They came back to her an hour later with £200 worth of sponsorship and Wednesday was "The Day". She easily completed the challenge and was packing up to come home when she saw 'something' moving outside her second floor window and heard a strange noise. Instinctively she turned away and closed her eyes as the something burst through the glass of the closed window. She said the noise was terrifying and she could hear and feel glass showering over her. something fell on her desk and then whatever it was went out through the glass of the other window and the end of the room, leaving feathers drifting down through the air and glass dropping and tinkling to the floor - oh and a rather battered collared dove on the desk.
My daughter was totally traumatised, as was the Dove, and she stood shaking for a moment before pressing redial on her phone. She is the Mental Health Administrator in a Forensic Psychiatric Hospital and her last call had been to one of the wards. When they answered she couldn't speak but just burst into tears. Fortunately they recognised her voice and pretty soon she had several nurses and staff looking after her. She was quite a while before she could drive home and when she got here she was still shaking. She was hugged by all of us and her daughter told her she was safe now because "Grandpa won't let anything bad happen, and I am here to keep you safe mummy". They had food with us and gradually the human ability to find humour in every situation began to seep through until Mr M said "...and just be thankful no one said ...EAGLE!!!" (just like the teabag advert) which made us all laugh. So there you have it. This moment has come to you because of a delightful idea by Alexa at Trimmingthesails now you have read my contribution why not pop over there and see what other moments have happened this month

We are going to a party!

That's us, the party people...................... what? you don't believe me? Well, ok. Perhaps we aren't the burn-the-candle-at-both-ends kind of people any more, but we are going to a party on Saturday. We have had an invitation

 

Isn't that beautiful? all neatly folded with the date and time hidden under a fold of the paper and the reason for the party on the little dangly note underneath.

The son of a cousin on Mr M's side of the family - who incidentally shouldn't be old enough to go out on his own yet because he was only 30 last year! - is celebrating his engagement to a lovely and talented girl. She made the invitations and so I have paper folding envy.

We have had visitors this past weekend. I love it when people come to stay that we have known for long enough for them to have become part of the family. So much so that they will get up and put the kettle on and make a cuppa for everyone. We took them to Hay on Wye but because I discovered that somehow the lens of my camera has been damaged I didn't take the camera. There were four other cameras in our group but no one has given me any pictures yet. I will document the trip when the pictures arrive..... when I do the page for the album. Closer examination of the pictures taken with my camera seem to show that the damage is not fatal, and I can still use it. I feel a whole lot better now. We also took them to the OK Diner and it was decreed A Good Thing.

Mostly feeling sorry for myself

Just when you think things are getting better. Just when you can go out of the front door without having to gather all your courage and breath into a tight ball. Something, happens that knocks you back down again. What is interesting is my reaction this time.
You see, this time I got angry about it. How dare my leg start with the cellulitis again! How dare that person upset me in the way they did! How dare the weather change to sunny and bright when I can't walk out to enjoy it! How dare I feel like this when there is so much to see and do out there!
The less interesting thing is that my default state when taking these awful antibiotics etc is to sleep. I wake at around 4am when the eczema flares. I have to get up and walk about because when I lie down I can reach my leg and scratch - not good. this eases by about 7am so I can take the next lot of tablets and then I lie on the sofa and sleep until lunchtime. More pills and something to eat and then guess what? yes that's right, sleep again and then the 4pm flare and so it goes.

Visitors this weekend so that'll cheer me up a bit and if it is dry we are taking them out somewhere good, can't say where until it happens. I might have to sit in the car but that won't matter as long as I am a part of the fun.