A New Leaf

Hello dear readers!

Well did you? Did you have a great Christmas? I asked you to. It was a specific request at the end of my last post, so I really, truly, hope that you did.

Me? Well my Christmas was a bit of a mixed bag. Yes, I had a nice day. I managed to cook a three course meal of which two were eaten and I managed to do it without even the whisper of food poisoning. Chocolates were eaten, along with stollen, mince pies, and the rest of the traditional fare one might expect. Gifts were given and received with delight. Not a bad day at all.

Of course I could have done without the heart attack my father suffered almost exactly a week before.

Christmas Present

Hello dear readers!

I’m Baa-aaack!!

Yes, after a considerable amount of quiet time your friendly neighbourhood seated person is back at his laptop, ready to entertain and enlighten. Sorry about that.

So, what, you may ask, is the reason for this recent radio silence? Well, to tell the truth, although it would be easy to blame medical grounds, and to a degree it would be a well deserved accusation, that would not be giving you the full story. It's a story of pain, of anguish... and more than a little red wine.

To End All Wars

Hello dear readers!

Sometimes it’s tricky to find something to write about on any given Sunday. Sometimes it’s easy. Sometimes life has been eventful, or vexatious enough to provide a choice of material.

Today though, on the 11th day of the 11th month, there really is only one subject that can possibly do.

Turkish Delight

Hello dear readers!

Yes I am back! The wanderer returns. The boy is well and truly back in town.

But back from where? You may ask (If you didn’t read the last blog post you might, anyway). Well back from holiday. Back from a week in the last of the Turkish sun. A week of rest, relaxation, and maybe a light spot of overindulgence.

Unsurprisingly, said holiday is the subject matter of today’s most humble offering.

Breaking Glad

Hello dear readers!

The waiting is very nearly over. The time is almost upon us.

What time? Why the time for myself and the increasingly long suffering Mrs to forget all of life’s minor annoyances, to put aside the ups and downs of every day living and immerse ourselves in total and utter relaxation, to calm body and mind, and let go. No, I’m not talking about some new-age, hippy-dippy stuff. No joss sticks, immersion tanks, or even a hint of getting back to nature will be required for this particular de-stressing therapy. No, it's much more exciting than any of that.

We're going on holiday!

Kicking The Habit

Hello dear readers!

You join me today in a veritable whirlwind of barely controllable excitement.

There are reasons for this, very normal, and entirely relatable reasons, on the whole. Reasons that could well provide the meat, and possibly the drink of future instalments of this epic epistle to the masses (or at least the unlucky individuals) and upon which I will expand a little later. First of all though, I would like to spend a little time explaining a less obvious reason for my somewhat giddy demeanour.

After a short period of soul searching, I’ve finally kicked the habit.

Green Shoots

Hello dear readers!

And welcome to what I am going to start to refer to as my bi-weekly blog.

Yes, that’s right, I a have decided to take a little pity on you and limit these banal little episodes of my life to a fortnightly affair. The reason for this is less to do with MS related fatigue issues (although they are a little bit of a factor), and more to do with the fact that life, the odd little hiccup aside, has settled down to the point that I sometimes struggle for subject matter.

I know, shocking isn’t it?

Luckily for you, this week, well this week has been far from settled.

Garden Variety

Hello dear readers!

Isn’t the outdoors great?

Not all the time of course. Not when it’s tipping it down with rain, sleet, snow, or Ming the Merciless’ hot hail for instance. No definitely not then. With the weather set unusually fair for the temperate shores of Blighty, however, it is most definitely well above average.

If only we had a garden to enjoy.

University Challenged

Hello dear readers!

You know, for an atheist, I do find myself in church an awful lot.

Of course, a lot of this has to do with being married to a card-carrying, uniform-wearing, soldier in the Salvation Army. It means that despite my best intentions to avoid the Sunday morning services and their associated platitudes and gratitudes, every now and then I am called upon to fulfill my husbandly duties, swallow my skepticism and lend some emotional support to Tina, my wife at the Worship Hall.

Today was one of those times, and the reason the emotional support was needed? Well, that had rather a lot to do with a certain eighteen-year-old.

Sick & Tired

Hello dear readers!

You join today, a broken man.

I am tired. I am achey (and, as mentioned, possibly a little bit breaky... And that's not just my heart either). In fact, today, I am a mere shell of a man, stumbling through what remains the day until the time I can legitimately go to bed without feeling like a seven year old.

And the reason for this? Well, it’s all down to medication.

A Life In The Year

Hello dear readers!

It’s been a busy old week.

I’ve gotten upset at buses, drunk entirely too much gin, driven to Chester and back, sampled afternoon tea, and had a lovely dose of a drug that leaves me feeling like one of those cartoon characters that’s just been run over by four cars, a steamroller, and a marching band.

Yup, it’s been busy, and it’s been particularly wearing, and at this time of year especially, that is something to reflect on.

London Calling (Pt 3)

Hello dear readers!

It’s been a busy time of late, what with getting quotes to make the back garden a little more user-friendly, booking my wheelchair in for some running repairs, and celebrating the mighty achievement of remaining married for six very eventful whole years!

We have in that time survived illness scares for my wife, Tina, as well as myself, and had some huge changes in circumstances. If it was a case of testing our relationship to destruction, then I’m happy to say that we’ve passed. A+. Gold stars all round. And that’s with my natural tendency to annoy the hell out of Tina. (Deliberately? Me? Nooo. Surely not.).

So, yeah. There was that. Not that we’ve done anything special to mark the day as yet, funds being a little on the non-existent side as they are. We do have a cream tea paid on for us by a very generous and completely anonymous person though (Thank you to whoever that was. Love random acts of kindness). So that will probably more than suffice.

And of course non of that is the subject of today’s post.

London Calling (pt 2)

Hello dear readers!

And welcome to part two of my very first two part blog post!

Yup, it’s time to pick up from where we left off last time, as we revisit my recent, um, visit, to the Big Smoke, that is Old London Town. There were thrills, there were spills, there were unexpected flights of stairs, and that was just on day one out of three.

Now it’s time for days two and three.

London Calling

Hello dear readers!

And so the wanderer returns.

Yes that’s right your favourite blogger (Top ten? Top hundred? No... Ah well.) is back from his adventures in the sprawling metropolis that is London Town. There were thrills, there were spills, there were disappointing Yorkshire puddings, and a wealth of other bits and bobs.

Curious? Then please read on.

Question Time

Hello dear readers!

There are more questions than answers.

Well there are unless you accept ‘I don’t know’ as an answer, anyway. Of course, if you do, then you have one answer for a hell of a lot of questions… But I digress.

The importance of questions, and the need to ask them was nicely illustrated to me just this last week.

Up For The Cup

Hello dear readers!

I have heard it said that there is a bright side to everything.

It’s an assertion I would challenge, if I’m honest; one that seems to err on the side of sheer bloody minded optimism, but, in certain cases at least, it might bear some fruit.

At the moment it’s fruit that I am more than happy to pick.

Driven

Hello dear readers!

Today you join a tired seated person.

No, you’re right, this is not an uncommon state of affairs. In fact since last years MS diagnosis its only really through a heady combination of bloody mindedness and far too much caffeine that I function at all.

Last week’s wonderful bank holiday weekend though? Well after that I was flirting with exhaustion more than ever, and here’s the reason why.

To Do Is To Be

Hello dear readers!

Wouldn’t it be lovely not to have to work for a living?

I think it’s a dream we’ve all entertained at one point or another. Perhaps it was on a day like today when the sun is beating down and the smell of freshly mown grass is mingling with the more delicious odours of someone burning meat in their back garden.

Yes. I think we’ve all dreamed that dream. Trouble is... when you start living it.

Rose Tinted

Hello dear readers!

Life begins at forty. That’s what the infamous, unknown ‘they’ say anyway.

That makes me three going on four which, to anyone familiar with my levels of maturity, might sound about right (or maybe just a touch generous). It also means that I am approaching, or possibly overtaking, that phase of life known as middle age. I’m not a fan of the term myself as it seems to indicate a limit to ones lifespan and, let’s face it, that’s not a happy thought.

And of course these years in themselves bring their own wonderful challenges.

Common Or Garden

Hello dear readers!

Well, I’m not sure about your particular corner of the world but here in sunny West Yorkshire it’s actually… Sunny.

Yup, that wonderful ball of burning gas is shining down on us with nary a cloud in the sky to spoil the view or lower the temperature. It’s led to the hottest, brightest day of the year so far. In short, as we say in these parts, it’s proper cracking the flags.

So, with this being the U.K. and such days being in short supply it must surely be time to get out the garden furniture, whip off the T-shirt, crank up the barbie, and crack a few cold ones in the back garden, yeah?

In a word… No.

Dog & Tone

Hello dear readers!

There’s something Thomas Edison once said about perspiration and inspiration.

No, I’m not claiming any kind of genius (or even moderate intelligence), nor am I going to delve into percentages or other convoluted mathematics in the post that follows. In fact the only reason I mention the above reference is that, having lived a wholesomely quiet life this week inspiration has been a little on the lacking side.

Luckily perspiration came to the rescue; and in a way you might not expect.

Common Courtesy

Hello dear readers!

And welcome to the first blog entry in three weeks!

Yup, thanks to a horrible infection that I managed to pick up, and which did not play particularly well with my MS, it has indeed been three whole weeks since we (unknown number, possibly three) met.

So you might very well be not even considering asking, what’s been going on?

To tell the truth, not a lot.

On The Town

Hello dear readers!

And welcome to a, well, slightly more than late Seated Perspective.

Yup, in a spectacular display of tardiness, this blog is being written not on the customary Sunday but a full week later. There are reasons for this. Good reasons. Reasons that are multi faceted, layered, and subtly nuanced. The fact that one of them is that last Sunday I had a hangover… Well that’s neither here nor there.

The reason for that hangover, however, now that might be worth a blog post.

Wife And Death

Hello dear readers!

You know, sometimes it’s very easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of ones own humdrum little existence.

It can be incredibly tempting to believe that our own problems are the be all and the end all. To look inward, at the contents of our own little bubbles, and imagine that that bubble encompasses all of the world.

This week provided a stark reminder that it really, really, isn’t so.

The Snow Job

Hello dear readers!

Serendipity. It’s a lovely word, isn't it? One that trips off the tongue in an easy and, for me at least, a strangely satisfying manner.

It of course means that happy accident, that occasion of something turning up at just the right time. This week has presented just such a happy accident to your friendly neighbourhood blogger, and it came in perhaps the most unwelcome of guises

Namely… Snow.

Hot And Cold

Hello dear readers!

Oops, I did it again.

No, I did not play with your heart, or indeed get lost in any games (I had to google the lyrics, honest). What I did do however is miss another instalment of this increasingly less than weekly blog. Sorry.

The reason for this egregious oversight? Well it had a little to do with fatigue, a little to do with frustration, and a lot to do with a fridge.

All Downhill

Hello dear readers!

Today you join a tired wreck of a blogger.

This is not just the ‘normal’ Multiple Sclerosis related haunting weariness that I am quickly getting far too used to. No, this is more of a physical tiredness, a tiredness of muscle and sinew, and it all stems back to yesterday, and one sentence, uttered by Tina, my very own lovely lady wife.

“Shall we go for a walk?”

Love And Flowers

Hello dear readers!

Love is the greatest thing, the oldest yet the latest thing.

Or so the song says anyway. In this time of ideologically driven austerity coupled with my own less than perfect health and subsequent joblessness, it’s also something else. Something that, personally at least, seems more profound than any song lyrics.

It’s bloody expensive.

The Long And The Short Of It

Hello dear readers!

This week you join a rather relieved, yet strangely apprehensive blogger.

The reason for this lies in a quite imasportant appointment that yours truly attended last Monday. It was one of those. An occasion I’ve been waiting for for some time. An appointment I’ve been building up in my mind as a daunting and somewhat scary experience.

Slightly disappointingly it turned out to be… Not that bad.

Panic Stations

Hello dear readers!

Yup, I blipped again.

You’re not imagining things. Last weeks blog post was indeed absent, something that has occurred more than once of late. I might have a little re-think and move to fortnightly post but, If I’m honest I’m not sure that that would solve the issue.

You see there was a reason for this aberration.

The Doubt Of The Benefit

Hello dear readers!

Boy, am I nervous, and I mean really nervous.

It’s odd really as the reason for this anxiety lies a couple of weeks in the future, and I’m not usually one to worry that far in advance. In fact, if anything the accusation has been made my faire lies a little too much on the laissez (or should that be lazy) side of things. Comparisons to a particularly chilled out and perhaps only semi-conscious sloth may have occasionally been mentioned.

That being said, this is a biggie. A real watershed moment.

Weight for it

Hello dear readers!

And welcome to the first post of the year. Yay!

Last week I talked about the end of a particularly tumultuous year and how I wanted to put that firmly in the rear view mirror and concentrate on getting the best out of 2018.

This has not changed, but in the last couple I’ve been hit particularly hard by the undeniable realisation that I’m taking something into the new year that I thought I’d neatly disposed of.