Highs and a low

I have again woken up and felt like nothing was wrong with me, except I am
a bit slower at things. I imagine that this might be how some much older
people feel. That feeling lasted over an hour today -  the longest yet. I
felt I could do anything, albeit at a slower pace. Over the last few days I
have experienced some new highs but also hit a bit of a low on one
particular day,  Me being me, I carefully analysed what had been so good
and what had been not so good. Although there is a lot going on in my body
that I cannot control, there are things I can control that I am sure do and will make
a huge difference.

Thanks for the great emails
I have been receiving wonderful emails from students, colleagues,
relatives, and from long lost friends from my high school. With all my
visitors and my rest periods I have not been able to reply to them all,
and those that I have managed to reply to were not as long as I would have
liked. But please fabulous writers do know that I value these emails. And
what is it that I value so much about these emails? They talk about life -
what they are doing, how their work is going, what their new Bach
decorations look like, and what they have been doing since my old high
schooldays. They talk about the life I will be coming back to. There may
be an encouraging line or two in the email (which is very nice) but it is
the fact that in the email I am treated like a normal person, colleague,
relative or old friend.

My Aunty and Uncle's visit
I have had some very nice visits recently, one particularly uplifting and
joyous visit from one of my Aunties and Uncles. I had always known my
uncle was a bit of an old car enthusiast and since he retried I think he
is spending almost all his time working with his son on various
restorations. He bought around a range of photos of the various vehicles
he has and what he is working on, and we discussed some of the details of
what he had done and how he had done it.  Those that know me well know
that I am not easily impressed, but in this  case I was just amazed. He
does not have a full mechanical workshop, has no lathe or milling machine
or metal bender, yet he manages to restore WW2 era military vehicles to
original condition on a shoestring budget, and often with nothing more
than a photo of a particular part to go on (sometimes even less than
that).  The skill, talent, innovation and creativity required to do this
just amazes me. He has now just embarked on rebuilding an armored vehicle
- again with none of the heavy lifting tools etc that you would imagine
that you would need. Now I am not really a car enthusiast and I know relatively little about cars but I do admire
such amazing skill, and when I am stronger I am going to go around and see these
vehicles and what he is doing for myself. My Aunt and Uncle's visit was just so great and
I felt full of life - I am sure my eyes were sparkling!  I can't wait to see them again so I can see more, and
ask more on how he is doing particular things. On reflection I don't think
we ever once talked about me, and as far as I was concerned that was just
perfect.

Food cravings!
My lower point this week was an accumulation of a couple of things.  I did
try a pad Thai dish - Patti got it from a lovely little restaurant that we used to go
to. Unfortunately it was a bit oily and my system struggled to cope. I
loved the flavour, so we will just have to experience at home a bit more
how to get some of these delicious flavours in my meals. Someone may yet
find a recipe or place that makes such a dish virtually oil free and then
we will try that as well. My body is craving simples dishes with meat,
veggies, and rice/noodles all mixed together (something  Patti has been
diligently cooking for me almost on command).

What I like to hear and talk about
After a particularly long day I also got to the point of being too tired
to talk about myself anymore. Now I know visitors are concerned for me,
and want to know how I am getting on, how I am feeling etc. I do get it -
believe me I do. I have, up to this point, tried to answer all questions as
freely as possible. But, and now I am being selfish a bit I know,  those
are not conversations I prefer. On reflection,  my best and most joyous
visits, emails etc are about everything and anything except me. My new
approach is that I may talk to visitors about myself but more than likely
I may not. I am a person on the mend, and will update, as best I can via
the blog, how the mending is going. In direct conversation I want to hear
about the life that is going on whilst I am recuperating and the life that
I am coming back to.

Thank you again to all my readers.