Health - Something I had relatively a solid version of, seems to have deserted me for some time. In the last few years, I have passed through cardiac problems, to the current situation of Medicaments daily up to 13 per day, with stents, bypasses and now (for some years) a 'built in defibrillator'. These problems, and the medicaments, took their toll, and led to complications.Stomach ulcers were caused by one, other things were caused by others....all these medicaments, did their job, but led to other health problems. They are all necessary for the function of living, so the option of not taking them was not available. On top of these problems,I recently (some 4/5 years ago) took up close relations with an American/Italian lady, and with time, came love.Not of a sexual variety, we are both retired and rather elderly for such frivolities (not that it is limited to young people, but......).  We set up home together, and I love this lady as much, and as well, as I am able to....

It's obvious, the older you get, the easier life gets - doesn't it? Well, that's what I thought too, and up till a couple of years ago, it was indeed the case. I had my little life - regulated with good wine, with good food.....able (just) to do the things I wanted to, no holidays but a regular income thanks to my deceased wife, the German Pension System, the UK less generous system and anything I could pick up on the stony road I was travelling. No big Mansion, no boats, Banks and Bangles (apart from the absolute necessary ones), just a simple but agreeable life. Then all hell broke loose....... Problems upon problems, starting with health and a 'hearty' welcome to a French Health System that did, has done, and still is doing everything it can for me and my feeble heart. They tell me it probably all started way back when my now deceased wife fell gravely ill - diagnosis Cancer of the Stomach which generalised itself, and after just 1 year, she had been operate...

J'ai noté que il n'existait pas de traduction de l'article 'Kathleen Mitchell - diary of a Death' ('Kathleen Mitchell - Journal d'une décès) en Français, donc je vais essayer de le faire, en me servant du 'Google Traduction.' Cette article sera publiée en deux parts, la Deuxième a trouver dans les 'Commentaires' sous forme d'un 'Blog'.  Si cela vous intéresse vous n'avez qu'a cliquer sur les commentaires et puis sur le lien. *********** 1ere Partie Kathleen Mitchell-Journal d'une mort. Kathleen Mitchell née Odell) 7 mars 1947 - 3 mars 1993 Journal d'une mort (Le compte rendu suivant a été publié, enfin, par moi, après une longue réflexion. Comme je ne sais pas ce qui pourrait arriver à l'avenir à mes papiers et manuscrits, et que l'endroit le plus sûr est l'endroit où personne ne peut les changer, c'est-à-dire publié, ici Je pense aussi qu’ils pourraient intéresser la famille de Kate, mais il...

22 février 93: La décision de donner une sédation forte a été prise par le personnel médical. Peu de temps après, Kate n'était plus parlable. Morphine 800 Valium 80. 23 février 1993: Très somnolent, très sédatif - pas de communication, juste un souffle, jusqu'à ce que le masque à oxygène soit installé. Kate va très vite en descente. Elle ne sait pas parler, a toutes les apparences d’un «coma artificiel», mais personne ne peut me dire si elle peut m’entendre, si elle est au courant de ma présence ou non. Alors je parle juste. 24 février 1993: Ce matin, Kate était consciente et le personnel médical nous a fait part de la décision. On nous a demandé si nous (plus de Kate que moi) étions d'accord. En raison de douleurs et d'autres problèmes, il est proposé de calmer fortement, dans une tentative «d'amélioration par le sommeil» qui consiste à minimiser les efforts du corps et à le laisser se concentrer sur ses propres procédures de guérison. Ils savent, je sais et Kat...

The Future! When I was forced to stop eating well, as I always used to, the Kitchen was full of good things, together with pots and pans......nowadays the kitchen is full of other things like these.......  Looks good, doesn't it? Wait till you taste the difference! Eating plastic is not a whim of mine, nor is eating out of plastic! It's called 'the future' - your food ready, on your knee in front of the TV - d1oesn't need any taste....the TV is why we're all there, FOOD? That's just a fill in - doesn't need taste, smells - all the good things life was made up of, with 4-5 hours of enjoyment.....now  you just grab a plastic tray, with a mess in it, and the whole ballyhoo is finished in 5 minutes, and tastes like it! Hospital food never was great, but better than 'the future' which is being presented in more and more sick rooms.....Really fills in our boring hospital's routine where the food is the only distraction available to needl...

One of London's 'Commons' Carrying on with my little series about London, a City but also very much a collection of villages which I enjoyed living in, working in, getting married in, and finally "'leavin'", I just wanted to touch on those places which London has so many of......'The Commons' - rather akin to Public Parks, but immense in size and in every 'village'.... A bit of their history is here: http://www.graftingardeners.co.uk/history-londons-commons/ and some are used by the well known  London Buses. Some are criss-crossed by main roads, some have public golf courses, some have tennis courts, both in concrete and in grass.... The special thing about these 'Commons' is their size....They are immense. In pure ground value they must be worth billions of billions of pounds sterling, and yet there is rarely any attack made on their status. It is rather astounding! Just for the record, there is another, ...

I first   'hit' Meze in the Hérault, France around 1967. Together with my wife, we were under way to the Southern France beaches as always in our '2-week-a-month' break!   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A8ze Have a look at the link above...... We normally went to a place called the Grau d'Agde, a place I knew from my British Army days, we could always get parking places right next to the beach wall, with a Restaurant around 100 metres away for lunch and evening pleasures, but this time we were looking for somewhere more 'permanent, and we just happened to come through Meze.   The main road, the N3, I think, takes an almost right angular bend in this small town, always interesting to watch, with the large boats being transported try to get around this obstacle! We decided to try the Camp Site we passed, at Meze, called 'Beau Rivage' and see what happened.  We needed a permanent place although only using it for 2 weeks ...

Many years ago, I lived in London, England. I went to school there, I went to work there, and later in life I returned to work there again. Battersea Grammar School Abbotswood Road , Streatham. 1936 - 1977 The period I'm talking about here, is in the 60's - 70's and London was very much a Village, or more - a collection of Villages held together with a lot of Traditional things for those privileged. As a Scotsman, I should not have been privileged, but the School I had gone to made me so, and the fact that I was a member of the 'Old Boys Society' (called 'The Old Grammarians') cemented these privileges firmly. http://www.oldgrammarians.org.uk/cgi-bin/index2.asp Later, when We left Britain for Europe, nobody in this Association could understand! Germany, France? No....no.....no.....no.... you can't do that, particularly not those two countries! We were almost 'struck off'......! On their site, I find no reference at all to myself despite...