The Chronicle
Latest dispatches
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- news
Gloom and Doom
The weather for the past 2 weeks has not been great. I appreciate nowhere near as bad as other northern counties of the UK or Northern Europe, but nevertheless grim and grey. We managed to escape any of the heavy snow in London, but the temperatures have hovered near freezing, sometimes dipping below or just slightly above. It has meant I have been nervous to switch off my central heating at night as I am terrified the water pipes will burst and cost me a fortune to rectify. In the last 10 days I have been out of the house once. Partly because I managed to catch a cold-like bug at new year and so was full of sniffles and coughs, but also because it was too grim and cold to bother going out. On Thursday I had a good excuse to attempt an outing - a choir social event in the evening - no singing just partying - but I cried off as the forecast was not good and I was also fearful my car battery might not spark into action as I had not driven it for over a fortnight. I didn't want to be stuc
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Happy New Year and into 2026
Christmas went very well considering I was nervous about spending it for 3 nights and 4 days with Darcy's parents, when my stomach was still playing up. I took my own food with me, in case they served something unsuitable. I was glad I did as some of the fare was spicy or very late at night - both things that can send my stomach into orbit. Kay collected me on Christmas Eve, drove us down to deepest Kent and from then on it was one long party with various members of Darcy's siblings dipping in and out of the celebrations over the four days. Christmas morning was spent with most of the family doing a 9am park run followed by a quick dash for the 10.30 church service. Once home, there was a group effort to prepare vegetables to go with a Beef Wellington, followed by a cherry and almond tiramisu. Canapes first and champagne cocktails (from which I sadly had to abstain as I was on a no-alcohol diet for my poorly stomach). We ate lunch at 4. The evening meal was cheese and biscuits at
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Happy Christmas
Sick of bland food over the last four weeks, I decided to do an experiment. As Kay, Darcy and I had been invited over to Darcy's parents in deepest Kent for Christmas, and they tend to cook vegetarian, we decided to have our traditional Christmas lunch a few days ago on Monday. I cooked the traditional meal only swapping turkey for chicken, as I did not want a lot of leftovers. I literally helped myself to a teaspoon of everything - chicken, carrots, parsnips, potato and one pig in its blanket - with lashings of gravy to convert it into a mush. The whole meal hardly covered a quarter of my dinner plate. I passed on the red cabbage and sprouts as I thought that was a step too far for an unhappy stomach. I then had a teaspoon of Christmas pudding with a little cream. If anything was going to upset me, THAT would. Thankfully and instinctively, I knew now was a right time to experiment and to my delight my stomach took the new food well and did not react, although admittedly I had dosed my
- news
Music, music, music
This last week has been a week of music events and, despite still feeling ill, I managed to go to all of them. First last Monday was my choir's concert in a nearby parish church. Five of my friends had - for the first time bought tickets to come and see me. Kay and her husband Darcy were there too. In the run-up to it, I had of course been feeling unwell, but knew I could not really go sick for the concert, if seven people had gone to all the trouble to watch me. It did put a lot of pressure on me, as with my acid-burnt throat I could not reach the very top soprano notes and had to mime some of them. Of course afterwards there was mince pies and mulled wine - none of which I could partake in as I am still on a very bland diet. The concert however was a huge success. Here is my favourite song of all our repertoire that night. Then on Thursday Kay, Darcy and I had tickets for the Royal Albert Hall to see Anna Lapwood, the celebrity organist. The concert was a mixture of traditional Chris
- news
More food for thought
I hinted in my last post that I had seen my gastric consultant and there was much to think about. To recap, I had a tumour removed from my stomach in 2016 and it has caused me various problems ever since. The tumour shown in red above was removed but left the top of my stomach a thin pointed shape which now pokes through my diaphragm up into the oesophagus (foodpipe) and releases acid into my throat. This is called a hiatus hernia. The second problem is that on the stomach wall, where the tumour was, runs a nerve which tells the pyloric sphincter at the bottom of the stomach to open. In removing the tumour, that nerve was damaged and now the pyloric sphincter doesn't open easily to let the food out into the duodenum and on to the intestines. So again, food and acid builds up in my stomach. The medical term is "delayed gastric emptying" (DGE). When I have had to fast for a gastroscopy procedure, I have fasted for at least 18 hours and they have still found food in my stomach when
- news
Christmas is coming
I'm not very much of a winter person as I hate the cold, damp weather and the long dark evenings which are not conducive to doing anything much except hunkering down and watching endless TV. Even when I do venture out in the evenings, such as to choir rehearsals, it is gone 10 o'clock, when I return to my car often with condensation on the windscreen or at worst frost. But there is one thing winter brings, which is not available any other time of year and that is Christmas. I know shops tend to start Christmas as early as August and certainly by early November it is impossible to ignore that Christmas is on its way. I absolutely love Christmas and am like a child in my anticipation of it. By early November I have bought all my Christmas cards and started planning what to buy others for presents. By the end of November, I have written my annual Christmas letter both in English and German to pop into the cards when I send them. By the first week of December, my cards are written and sent
- news
Three quarters of a century
Yesterday saw me celebrating my birthday. A milestone one at that. I am now officially 75 or in other words three quarters of a century. A 1950 vintage and so far doing OK. People keep telling me I don't look 75 but younger. I'm not sure if they're just being kind or need to go to Specsavers! I was going to tell you that we caught the train to a Medway town I have never been to and was interested in seeing it, as it has an old castle and a house where Charles Dickens lived. Unfortunately the weather proved far too wet and cold to tramp around outside for a whole day and furthermore I had a flare-up of my on-going stomach problem where I feel as if I have been punched in the chest. Also, because, Kay is stressed and preoccupied with a forthcoming exam in 3 days' time, I decided it was best all round if we aborted the trip and I took to my bed and rested while Kay revised at her house. In the late afternoon, I rallied a bit and we met up and ventured out to see th
- news
A Parliament of Owls
Thanks to a post by Dawn Treader recently, it got me thinking about the owls I own. When I was a lot younger, I once commented that my husband Greg reminded me of an owl - he wore large metal-rimmed spectacles that were fashionable in the 60s and 70s (the sort John Lennon used to wear) and was very wise. He was a radio journalist who ended up in the BBC World Service Newsroom, so was very knowledgeable about all sorts of things to do with politics and world affairs. Having made this observation, I then found I was inundated with presents of owls by people who needed some clues for what to give me for birthday or Christmas presents or a souvenir from their holiday. Not real owls of course, but china ones, glass ones, fabric ones, vases, mugs, pictures, doorstops, jewellery and keyrings. Over the decades I have accumulated so many that I have now had to say 'No more, please', as my shelves and walls are groaning with them. If at some stage in the future, I need to downsize my home, I sha
- news
Rota Manager
Although I have been retired for 15 years now, I still seem to be very busy. As I have been a widow for all that time too, I find it helps to keep busy otherwise I end up talking to the wall or watching too much TV. Apart from the weekly housework and gardening that needs doing, I have joined choirs, do at least 3 gym classes a week, help out at the local foodbank and foodbank shop and also volunteer at our local park which is run by the Friends of the Park. As for the latter, the volunteering has involved doing a two-hour shift on a weekend afternoon to open the information centre. We can sign up to do a shift once a week, or even once every two months - the choice is yours and there is no pressure to do it regularly. The public come in to buy food for the squirrels or ducks, or leaflets about the many things to see in the park - such as the different trees, ducks, herons or wildlife. We try to answer their questions too, so there is a lot involved. Being the organisation freak