James' blog - The Christmas Countdown

Most of the last month has been taken up with various infections: UTI, Chest and UTI again. So there has been no rest for the wicked or for the good for that matter. Needless to say my Angels have been completely wonderful and propelled me back to health from where this comes to you.

Of course one of the problems of being “confined to barracks” is that there haven’t been any Eureka moments in the supermarket and all other plans have had to be scratched for the time being. One occasion that was sad to miss was the golden anniversary of success on the Rugby pitch. There are still 13 men of the original 15 about and we were all due to meet in London for lunch for the first time since that victorious day. Thus it was galling to have to pull out on the very morning of the event just before leaving to catch the train but my eagle eyed angel on duty that day spotted the symptoms immediately and so the last couple of weeks have been a pretty good write off. It would have been a disaster had we tried the trip. Didn’t she do well?

This month will be forever remembered for the appalling acts of terrorism in France and the aftermath. Why does nobody call the perpetrators of these deeds “cowards”, this is what they are. It is much to be hoped that their recent atrocities have done what nothing else has in that it brings the whole of the civilized world together, including all the Muslims who are desperately upset by the usurping of their religion by certain individuals. Let's hope that our unity helps us deal with these cowards as quickly as possible.

My lovely Labrador, Zip, had what is best described as the snip last week. It is good to be able to report that all has gone well and he is no longer having to wear one of those dreadful plastic lampshades, which must be awful to wear but are equally bad for shins, legs, furniture and all the other things that are battered whilst this instrument of torture has to be worn. The wearing of it had to coincide with what will almost certainly turn out to be the one fall of snow of this winter. The snow here only lasted for a few hours and looked very pretty before dissolving into puddles and mud but caused huge excitement amongst the Terriers and Zip who managed to fill his plastic lampshade rather like a JCB digger as he rushed about enjoying his first ever taste of snow.

Christmas approaches – a frightening thought as not a single present has been bought yet let alone thought of. However something is going to have to be done soon to make sure that the situation is taken in hand before the sands of time run out. One of the things that disability teaches you is that you need to plan ahead as far as you can. Luckily I have a very good team of Angels to keep me up to the mark.

If it happens that the next blog is not published before Christmas and the New Year. I wish you all a wonderful, dare I say Pulsating time and look forward to the adventures of 2016!