Well, this time last year I was lying on a table with my chest cut open having quadruple bypass surgery—that after a heart attack a year ago this past Wednesday. Hard to believe that was a year ago. This has been a strange week of “a year ago right now I . . . .” But I do have the scar to show for it. Grateful for how good I’ve felt since.
Just came in from shovelling, which (see my earlier post about the epic snowstorm of Jan 2020) we were probably also doing on Jan 22 last year. I know from Facebook memories that we stood in line to get into a grocery store after they'd been closed for several days, causing me now to reflect that we were standing in line for groceries BEFORE it was cool.
Well, this time last year I was lying on a table with my chest cut open having quadruple bypass surgery—that after a heart attack a year ago this past Wednesday. Hard to believe that was a year ago. This has been a strange week of “a year ago right now I . . . .” But I do have the scar to show for it. Grateful for how good I’ve felt since.
Flipping heck!
A friend of mine was just cut open to have his tubes de-furred, and was lucky to get done in the lull in covid here in about nov. He seems to be recovering; I’m so glad it’s going well for you too.
This time last year I was being operated on to plate a fractured thigh. I had overturned my mobility scooter on a bad camber, came off, and landed with the scooter on top of me.
Unfortunately, I have never regained the little mobility I had, and am chair bound, using a power chair when I go out with Darllenwr 😟
A year ago today, we went on a day trip to Raglan Castle. Who would have thought that such a simple trip would soon become impossible - we can't go further than walking distance of our house, can't drive off for a day out and, in any case, the castle wouldn't be open.
Me and my partner had just been attending the yearly European Astrofest conference in Kensington which we go to every year, both being astronomy nerds. It's not happening this year of course, but it's usually a great occasion to meet and catch up with people we've met on various astronomy themed tours like some of the total solar eclipses we have witnessed.
I would like to post what happened a year ago, which has coloured everything since, but it would identify the place and the situation and colluding persons. Not that I wouldn't like to do so.
I would like to post what happened a year ago, which has coloured everything since, but it would identify the place and the situation and colluding persons. Not that I wouldn't like to do so.
Intriguing! I hope everything since was better for you.
I was just thinking that this question will be pretty moot in a month or so.
I would like to post what happened a year ago, which has coloured everything since, but it would identify the place and the situation and colluding persons. Not that I wouldn't like to do so.
Intriguing! I hope everything since was better for you.
I was just thinking that this question will be pretty moot in a month or so.
I was thinking about that very question in relation to the thread, @Boogie , and it will still be interesting to hear what other people were doing, even in lockdown when things are perhaps a tad less eventful. I am still surprised when I think about things that happened a year ago, as time seems to have gone very oddly over the past year and I forget some things that were only a year ago as it seems much longer, and another world.
This time a few days ago last year Nenlet1 and son-in-law had been with us overnight as they'd been seeing friends locally to celebrate a birthday. Nenlet2 was still here with us and had borrowed my car for the weekend to drive a large puppet squid around the country!
It's not for me, but for my friend, and it is still being worked through. Covid hasn't helped - people needed to be met and negotiated with. For negotiated, read something more aggressive. Or "Friend, I feel your relationship with the truth is questionable."
I can check back on my diary (record keeping for symptom identification and management which makes talking to consultants at the rare appointments more sensible), but things haven't changed a whole lot for me since last year. Caring makes the days all rather samey.
The main differences are that Guides continues on Zoom rather than in person, and this time last year I was frantically making a quilt with the help of the young people at the after school session, and though we are trying to engage them online, and learning how to do some entertaining things using Zoom (joint drawings on shared screens, use of PowerPoint) we didn't get this up and running fast enough not to lose them.
A year ago cb turned 40. She and her husband had a long weekend at the nearby Center Parcs. We had the grandkids for 2 days and the whole family visited them on the Saturday. We swam and ate out together. We haven’t been all together since then. I’m so grateful that we had that time.
We had goulash soup for tea today, remembering that the last time we ate it was today, last year, in a lovely cafe nestled in the forest above Heidelberg.
Do you have access to books, an e-reader, kindle or something? I would be going out of my mind (such as it is). It was bad enough after the quakes when we only had access to small libraries for 8 years, but to go without visiting the library would awful.
I can be quite specific about what I was doing this day last year: the people of the Cathedral in Fredericton gave me a farewell party, which doubled up as a birthday party. It was my first birthday since David died, and despite rather atrocious weather, over 50 people turned out to wish me well.
The Knotweed and I were planning a Valentine's trip up to London, doubtless to do an exhibition at the British Museum (Troy, we think), followed by a trip into Chinatown for a meal. Back then, despite the Daily Heil's claim that the place was empty owing to the new virus, it didn't look a lot different to usual, just a few more masks and NHS letters on every shop door.
Even though I had my usual yearly flu shot, I had the worst case of flu I ever had. It hung on for weeks. A lot of friends and neighbors were also sick. Makes me wonder?
Even though I had my usual yearly flu shot, I had the worst case of flu I ever had. It hung on for weeks. A lot of friends and neighbors were also sick. Makes me wonder?
This day last year I went to spend the night with my brother, who was just out of hospital after having been in for the previous ten months. He was still far from well, but it was good to see him home and I had a nice time playing games with his son and watching films with my sister in law. SiL was very worried about the covid virus, and I was very upbeat about it wouldn't be a problem in the UK. Yep, I was wrong. Although I've seen brother and family lots on zoom since then, I haven't met him in the flesh since.
After 11 months of cautious, gradual return to "normal," or something like it, looks very much like we will be spending March 2021 exactly how we spent the last part of March 2020 -- in a tight and total lockdown, as our little island home has just been hit by the fast-spreading "UK Variant." At least this time, unlike mid-February last year, we know what's coming. Can't say I'm thrilled about it, but, in the immortal and inspiring words of the last US President, it is what it is.
Aberdeen Bus Station is not a good place to be if you are feeling sorry for yourself. It is one of the dreariest bus stations I know.
A year ago today, 17 Feb, I was also in Aberdeen bus station. I took my godson to Edinburgh to see the dinosaur exhibition. We met my son there. I had booked the Megabus Gold, but there were high winds on the Forth Road bridge and the bus was substituted for a standard single decker with no snacks and no wifi. The bus home was a Megabus Gold, but because of the weather was running an hour late, so we had an hour in Edinburgh bus station. My godson is autistic and loves dinosaurs, so I thought it would be a brilliant day - and the exhibition was brilliant - but he didn't cope very well with the buses not being as expected.
He also asked me if I'd changed my mind about being a Christian having seen the exhibition. Apparently you can't believe in both God and dinosaurs - it's an either / or.
I love the National Museum of Scotland - can't believe it's been a full year since I was last there. A whole year since I last visited Edinburgh.
{{{Piglet}}} You've done so much and so very well. I'm quite certain that David would be proud.
This time last year I knew I was going to be finishing work and it was a tough time for the organisation I was working for and for my team. I wrote in my journal, "I can't spend the next 4 weeks feeling as wrung out and overwhelmed as I do now."
I've also found stuck into my journal an article entitled "The Wuhan strain" from the magazine "The Week." It's a sobering read and one sentence stands out to me now: "Chinese officials had believed that people could even spread the virus before they had symptoms, but recent research suggests that this is not the case."
Exactly the same thing I'm doing now. It's a big translation job I've been doing every February for about six or seven years. I'd been expecting it be cancelled this year, for Covid reasons — it’s indirectly connected with a specialised trade fair held every year in March —but I was glad to be told it’s going ahead anyway.
I slipped and fell in the changing rooms at the swimming pool, breaking my wrist. It was bad enough that I needed surgery and a plate. So the next couple of days were spent hanging around Canberra hospital waiting for the surgery. There were some notices
about Covid, but no real changes in the way things were done at that point. By the time I went back to the fracture clinic a few weeks later it was very different.
I'm glad to say that the wrist has fully recovered.
A year ago today our "birthday group" from church took me out for my birthday (which is actually tomorrow but we always celebrate on Sundays). As it turns out, that was our last birthday luncheon. I'm hoping that we'll be able to start them up again in the not too distant future.
Mr Nen has a birthday at the beginning of March too, and last year was his 60th. Celebrations extended over several days and included a cream tea at a local posh establishment on the day and a meal out in the evening, a day of rallying the following day and friends and family over to the house that evening, a park run with lots of friends and family running with him (I minded the bags and coats) and another meal at our local Italian establishment with more of the family. It was all really lovely and seems like a lifetime ago.
A year ago today I went to a youth group meeting on mental health to talk about having bipolar disorder.
(Today I communicated by email with my students and colleagues and phoned a student who needed some advice, before planning 2 online tutorials. This is what I would have been doing on a Monday in March last year as I work and teach online in normal circumstances.)
A year ago tomorrow, I returned to work (part-time at first) after recuperation from bypass surgery.
Today I am enjoying my first day of retirement.
Enjoy your retirement - we are very happy with ours and are looking forward to the day when Madame is able to retire completely (she is still chair of the board of Madame Limited with the monthly meetings to prepare for and chair).
I'm joining the others in wishing you a happy retirement. I was made redundant towards the end of March last year and aside from the awfulness of what the past year has contained (if it's at all possible to set that aside) it's great. I still enjoy that Sunday afternoon feeling of, "Monday tomorrow and I'm not going to work."
Thanks all for the good wishes! I do plan to find something to do in this next chapter of life, but I’m taking my time to rest and figure out what that something might be. I’m blessed to gave a wife who encourages that approach.
Not last year but 21 years ago yesterday I went with my daughter to the Millenium Dome. A nice time there but an awful coach journey down to London and an even worse one back home
Thanks all for the good wishes! I do plan to find something to do in this next chapter of life, but I’m taking my time to rest and figure out what that something might be. I’m blessed to gave a wife who encourages that approach.
Retirement is the best job I ever had. I didn't race into doing 101 new things either, but I am enjoying a variety of things I never had time for before.
@Nick Tamen I've found the most important lesson of retirement is to learn to say No. After many years of work there is a danger of throwing oneself into voluntary labour to the detriment of your health and happiness. I almost went that far, and since my own heart scare, I've been more vigilant of ensuring time for my own rest and relaxation.
Comments
Flipping heck!
A friend of mine was just cut open to have his tubes de-furred, and was lucky to get done in the lull in covid here in about nov. He seems to be recovering; I’m so glad it’s going well for you too.
Unfortunately, I have never regained the little mobility I had, and am chair bound, using a power chair when I go out with Darllenwr 😟
Intriguing! I hope everything since was better for you.
I was just thinking that this question will be pretty moot in a month or so.
Lockdown, lockdown and more lockdown!
I hope things are better for you now @Penny S .
I was thinking about that very question in relation to the thread, @Boogie , and it will still be interesting to hear what other people were doing, even in lockdown when things are perhaps a tad less eventful. I am still surprised when I think about things that happened a year ago, as time seems to have gone very oddly over the past year and I forget some things that were only a year ago as it seems much longer, and another world.
This time a few days ago last year Nenlet1 and son-in-law had been with us overnight as they'd been seeing friends locally to celebrate a birthday. Nenlet2 was still here with us and had borrowed my car for the weekend to drive a large puppet squid around the country!
The main differences are that Guides continues on Zoom rather than in person, and this time last year I was frantically making a quilt with the help of the young people at the after school session, and though we are trying to engage them online, and learning how to do some entertaining things using Zoom (joint drawings on shared screens, use of PowerPoint) we didn't get this up and running fast enough not to lose them.
Do you have access to books, an e-reader, kindle or something? I would be going out of my mind (such as it is). It was bad enough after the quakes when we only had access to small libraries for 8 years, but to go without visiting the library would awful.
This year's has been rather different ...
Mm, I’d be suspicious too!
A year ago today, 17 Feb, I was also in Aberdeen bus station. I took my godson to Edinburgh to see the dinosaur exhibition. We met my son there. I had booked the Megabus Gold, but there were high winds on the Forth Road bridge and the bus was substituted for a standard single decker with no snacks and no wifi. The bus home was a Megabus Gold, but because of the weather was running an hour late, so we had an hour in Edinburgh bus station. My godson is autistic and loves dinosaurs, so I thought it would be a brilliant day - and the exhibition was brilliant - but he didn't cope very well with the buses not being as expected.
He also asked me if I'd changed my mind about being a Christian having seen the exhibition. Apparently you can't believe in both God and dinosaurs - it's an either / or.
I love the National Museum of Scotland - can't believe it's been a full year since I was last there. A whole year since I last visited Edinburgh.
I've got the job and the flat (TBTG); it took less time than I might have thought.
Still working on the life rebuild (not being helped by a certain virus).
This time last year I knew I was going to be finishing work and it was a tough time for the organisation I was working for and for my team. I wrote in my journal, "I can't spend the next 4 weeks feeling as wrung out and overwhelmed as I do now."
I've also found stuck into my journal an article entitled "The Wuhan strain" from the magazine "The Week." It's a sobering read and one sentence stands out to me now: "Chinese officials had believed that people could even spread the virus before they had symptoms, but recent research suggests that this is not the case."
about Covid, but no real changes in the way things were done at that point. By the time I went back to the fracture clinic a few weeks later it was very different.
I'm glad to say that the wrist has fully recovered.
Today I am enjoying my first day of retirement.
A year ago today I went to a youth group meeting on mental health to talk about having bipolar disorder.
(Today I communicated by email with my students and colleagues and phoned a student who needed some advice, before planning 2 online tutorials. This is what I would have been doing on a Monday in March last year as I work and teach online in normal circumstances.)
Enjoy your retirement - we are very happy with ours and are looking forward to the day when Madame is able to retire completely (she is still chair of the board of Madame Limited with the monthly meetings to prepare for and chair).
Retirement is the best job I ever had. I didn't race into doing 101 new things either, but I am enjoying a variety of things I never had time for before.
Life has definitely become more interesting.
I hope it works like that for you.