Gillian Polack's Blog, page 327

gillpolack @ 2010-01-25T14:53:00

My life is just a bit full of news. The latest is that I am down yet another source of income this year. This is just a bit dire. I was told for two hours last night that I needed to reduce the stressors. How one does this without income is an interesting proposition.

If things don't turn round, I might have to give up the writing and teaching and research and go back into the public service. I'm not going to race into things for a few weeks, though - I can't, till I'm more sorted health-wi...

gillpolack @ 2010-01-25T00:35:00

I'm home, after many, many tests. I only spent 3 minutes waiting to be seen and I spent the rest of the evening either being tested or waiting for results. The 'some vision lost forever' is the sum of it, but I had a lucky escape. It could have been much wose. It may be much worse next time. I was nearly entirely blind in one eye. I asked about the tests and it seems that I have other incipient problems. All hopefully avoidable, now I know about them.

I would rather be able to see pr...

gillpolack @ 2010-01-24T18:19:00

Bad news with the eyes. Not necessarily dire, but bad. Some vision lost forever. I'm off to the outpatients at the hospital to sit for many hours and to undergo tests. Phone and email won't reach me. I'll come online when it's all over and tell you the outcomes.

gillpolack @ 2010-01-23T19:38:00

Some things don't change. One of my older cousins remembered her childhood today, to my mother. Mum told me, of course, and I had a Medieval thought. Perfectly normal conversation, but it reminded me how rusty I am on core skills. I might have to unrust.

You don't need to know about my rusty technical skills. You may, however, enjoy the story.

D's father was unloading boxes of fruit. The Tax Office men (these were the days when they were all men) came and said "We need to see your records...

gillpolack @ 2010-01-22T22:55:00

Slowly I creep back to normal. It's hard, though. I will write thoughtful posts and I will teach more and I will answer all my emails and remember everything I am told: I just need to creep a bit closer to normal than I am now.

My latest setback is my eyes. The optometrist is seeing them on Sunday (Sunday of a long weekend? at least I know I'm not creating a fuss over nothing - I was vaguely suggesting he fit me in late next week - he was concerned that he couldn't see me earlier) beca...

gillpolack @ 2010-01-22T16:43:00

I have given in to demand and have a userpic. I was going to get all the luxuries of a paid account and do photos and ask daft questions, but LJ lost me the certificate that persuaded me into the paid account and I got grumpy, so, no paid account. But I now have a true and accurate portait of me, done in the pub at Collector by a friend who was drinking pink lemonade. I have another, by another friend (also drinking pink lemonade in the Collector pub) should you ever get bored with my suave...

gillpolack @ 2010-01-22T12:36:00

I have twenty emails in my inbox and no milk for my coffee. I am about to brave the heat (and it's hot today, and we're only halfway through summer - I want to say 'woe is me' and heap ashes on my head and see if ashes cool things down) and spend quality shopping time with a friend. Then I can come home and do the work that was put off when I dealt with 699 emails. Or I can catch up on other things that lapsed when I was cavorting down south.

Or I could watch my new DVD (Southern food!!) a...

gillpolack @ 2010-01-21T22:51:00

After much valiant effort, I have diminished my email to merely impossible numbers. Expect answers say, in about twenty years, when I finally catch up fully.

This week has muddled my mind more than it ought and I shall soon have words for a standard apology which I think I shall send to everyone I have ever known, just to be safe. I ought to include the young women on the bus today. I dont know why one of them gave me such a piercing look. Maybe she read my thoughts on her exceedingly irri...

gillpolack @ 2010-01-20T12:18:00

Yesterday Mum and I did some sorting of Grandma's last possessions. This was the box with the impossible bits, although we did find her original marriage certificate, Grandpa's death certificate and evidence that Mum was right in the Great Argument over the Dining Room Suite. Don't ask me about the Great Argument. I know it not, except that it's been going on for decades and probably involves my uncles. All I know is that my mother is treasuring the receipt I found as if it were worth mil...

gillpolack @ 2010-01-17T22:59:00

The sea breeze is keeping me awake. This is just as well. It's been a very long day and I have much I have to sort through.

The sequential ceremonies were beautiful. The rain started just after the second (for my stepfather's sister-in-law) and I held an umbrella over Mum as the rain poured down.

That rain, the umbrella and all Les's family and friends beyond it coalesced something important in my mind. I had been looking over everyone, friends, relatives and their friends and relatives a...