Ladies who Lunch again... but for a good cause

Yesterday I had a fabulous day out. It was a fund raising event for LOROS, our local hospice. Why aren’t hospices government funded? I’ll never understand that. Without voluntary donations LOROS would have to close down, but with the kind of support they had yesterday they’ll be around for a long time yet. Over 750 of us shuffled our way into The Great Hall at Walkers Stadium for LOROS’ Annual Ladies Luncheon. In fact, The Great Hall wasn’t great enough. There was an overflow in the next room with a video link for the speeches and auction.

The speaker was Ann Widdecombe. For those of you who live outside the UK, Miss Widdecombe is a formidable lady, a retired MP who last year became our favourite Saturday night entertainment. She appeared on Strictly Come Dancing and was continually voted in by the public in spite of the judges declaring her to be a “de-sas-ter, dah-ling!” Her dancing skills may have received record low points, but as an after dinner speaker she scored a unanimous 10 out of 10 with us. She has perfect comedy timing, holding us enthralled in a story one minute and laughing out loud another. What an entertainer!

The food was good too. Here’s my starter...

...but I’m afraid that I was so busy chatting and scoffing that I forgot to photograph the rest of the food. All I can say it that it was delicious, which is no easy task with over 750 to cater for.

LOROS, or the Leicestershire and Rutland Hospice to give it its full name, is a specialist centre providing skilled nursing and medical care, including physiotherapists, occupational therapists and social workers. Lady Gratton, the President, told us that many patients arrive expecting the hospice to be a sombre, serious place but what they find is quite the opposite. The hospice provides emotional, spiritual and social care for both patients and their families. It’s not about preparing to die, but about living for the day.

It sounds like LOROS offer the same high level of care that my mum was given at Harley Grange Nursing Home, the same high level of care that we expect our hospitals to provide... how sad and distressing to learn that in many cases hospitals fail to do that.

Around the time of my mum’s death I had to step back from my hospital campaign. Sadly, but not surprisingly, there are still problems. People are still stopping me in the streets to tell me of yet another appalling case experienced by an elderly friend or relative in hospital. Can somebody out there answer me this one question?

If LOROS can look after our frail elderly with care and dignity, and if Harley Grange Nursing Home can look after our frail elderly with care and dignity, then why can’t our hospitals?

A half-perfect mini-break

We’ve been away! (Quite an event for us these days!) It was only a tiny mini-break but it was much needed and we hadn’t been on a ‘daughter visit’ for ages, so as Rod had a hospital appointment in London, we booked train tickets to London and then on to Hertford (which meant that I didn’t have any hated distance-driving to do.) Daughter had discovered a lovely new B&B in the centre of Hertford so we gave it a try.

Staying in a B&B can be a bit of a gamble. We’ve stayed in some decidedly dark and dingy ones in the past but I’m delighted to say that this was not one of them. It’s called Rigby’s and it’s only been open for a few months. A lot of thought has gone into the design of the rooms. The bed was snugly comfortable with cushions and bathrobes... 

...and a luxuriously spacious bathroom.

There was a fabulous view from the window...

...and we ate our freshly cooked breakfast in a period dining room overlooking the garden. (Whoops, I'm starting to sound like an advertisement now!)

Walking round Hertford was like being in a pretty seaside town. Even daughter’s cat was on her best behaviour, deigning to sit on my lap (I’m truly honoured, says daughter!) What a perfect mini-break... well half-perfect anyway.

Rod’s appointment was at Moorfields Eye Hospital. His eye sight hasn’t improved since he was on his second course of chemotherapy over a year ago. He’s still not able to drive. His hopes were hanging on the London Consultant suggesting a cure but sadly nerves in his eyes have been damaged and apparently there is no cure. It’s a case of coming to terms...

...but things could be worse. I may hate distance driving but at least I can drive and I did just that as soon as we arrived back. During the train journey home we realised that Rod hadn’t had fish and chips since all those food restrictions that had accompanied his stem cell transplant last August, so I drove straight round to our local chippie and we were soon scoffing fish, chips and mushy peas accompanied by two big mugs of tea. Perfect!

   

Looking forward to a better harvest

The vegetables that Rod planted last year were ready for harvesting when he was in hospital. He was too ill to eat any of them.

This year he’s in the garden most days, gaining in strength and putting on weight as he digs the earth and plants his seedlings. His peas are coming along nicely. I have to admit they rarely reach the saucepan. We eat them as we pick them but last year, after Rod’s stem cell transplant, raw vegetables were a definite ‘no-no’.

His broad beans are already flowering and there’s nothing creamier than young home-grown beans, but last year he couldn’t face them.

And the potatoes have settled in now that we’ve had a bit of rain. Last year they tasted amazing but everything to do with potatoes made Rod sick.

I must admit my preferred form of gardening is to wander round smelling the flowers. I couldn’t resist sharing with you a red rose that I photographed a few minutes ago. When I was a kid I had my own patch of garden. Dad planted a red rose bush in it for me. Red roses always remind me of Dad.

Rod’s biggest harvesting regret last year were his strawberries. It was a bumper crop but soft fruit was definitely not allowed with his lowered resistance and I hate strawberries so they were left for the birds. This year I reckon he’ll have the bowl and cream all ready and waiting. Roll on harvest time.

      

Remember the Fountain Pen?

Pen, pencil, ballpoint, keyboard, I’ve tried them all. I’ve always enjoyed writing with pencil. It makes that satisfying scratching sound on the paper but I hadn’t owned a fountain pen in decades. 

At school we had to do handwriting lessons with wooden sticks that had nibs on the end. We had to dip them into pots of ink. The mess!   

I progressed to a pen with a little lever that sucked ink into a rubber tube but the rubber perished so I got a cartridge pen [which is a bit of a cheat] and then came biros, felt tips and even *gulp* gel pens...

...but if you look carefully at the photo top right, you can see that I have returned to pen and ink. I hadn’t really looked at that photo for a while and then Ann Best mentioned it in a comment on one of my posts. She said that she used to use a pen but she’s now glad of computers because her ‘aging hands appreciate them so much’. I find that my aging back prefers writing longhand but that wasn’t why I decided to return to a fountain pen.

Last summer a writing friend, Josephine Feeney, told me that she always uses a fountain pen to do her writing. She said that it has a special feel to it. It inspires her. Being the sort of writer who needs all the inspiration I can get, I decided that a fountain pen was a must. This conversation occurred just before my birthday. How convenient.

My birthday fountain pen is beautiful. [Belated thanks to Rod or Mr A as he’s known on Twitter J] It’s smooth and tactile. I’m writing these words with it now [well, the rough draft anyway] and Josephine is right. There is something very special about writing with a fountain pen.

Of course, ultimately the words have to be typed onto the computer, my back doesn’t escape some discomfort and it takes longer for me to write and then type than it would if I were to type straight onto the keyboard, but this isn’t about speed. It’s about inspiration and given the choice between speed and inspiration I’d choose inspiration every time.

   

“Please can you sign my book?”

I'm having a book launch at

The Reading Shop, The Parade, Oadby, Leicester 

at 11 am on 16^th April.

The books are in

 A Children’s History of Leicester  ISBN: 978-1849931496

And they've put some of my Bathtime Rap books in the window display too

All we need now are some visitors to make my book launch a really fun morning... or is it? My pen is feeling nervous. It’s watched other authors signing books, their pens moving with a flash and a flourish and the signing is done. So why can’t my pen do the same? It seems to get tongue-tied (nib-tied?). It has no trouble when I write a manuscript. It works perfectly well when producing a covering letter. It even enjoys signing the contract but it has never managed to grasp the art of book signing.

So if you come along to the book launch (and I do hope you will) don’t forget, when you’re ready to have your book signed, to please go easy on my pen. It may be feeling just a little nervous.

    

I was on the radio

The following is, as promised, one of my regular chatty blogs. If you’re here as part of the A to Z Challenge then please visit my previous blog.

Last Friday BBC Radio Leicester, invited me in to record a piece for their afternoon chat show. They wanted to talk to me about my new children’s book, a Children’s History of Leicester, and our book launch which will take place at The Reading Shop, Oadby on 16th April (more about that later). 

I’ve been on Radio Leicester before but it’s still terrifying. I tried being rational. They’re not going to trip me up. It’s Rupal Rajani and her chatty programme. And it’s not live so we can stop if I say something ridiculous. And besides, I’m going to be talking about my favourite subject, my writing. Why should I possibly be nervous?

But as usual my body wouldn’t listen. I paced and practiced and got myself into quite a state but then, as always seems to happen on these occasions, I was fine when it came to doing it. I sat down in the studio and started chatting away as if I was having coffee with a friend.

Rupal Rajani in her recording studio

All too soon the interview was over and I was striding back to the car, proud of the way I’d managed to remain calm in the face of a mass of microphones.

The chair where I sat with all those microphones staring at me

I was just negotiating the car around a protruding kerb at the entrance to the car park when the voice on the car radio (which of course was tuned to Radio Leicester) issued a quick ‘later today’ item and it was my name... on BBC radio... I drove straight over the kerb. Clunk! Not as calm as I thought I was, huh?

If you’d like to hear my interview then you can find it at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00cs2cf with 5 days left to listen. It’s about 35 minutes into the 1^st April programme.

   

From Blog to BBC TV News Appearance

The other day a TV camera crew came to our house... well it was actually one TV cameraman with his portable camera but it was quite an experience nevertheless. We did light checks and sound checks and, with a little soft lighting, he converted our living room into a desirable bijou residence. I began the interview in a stilted manner, very conscious of what I was saying, but by the time we reached the part that they actually used I had warmed to my argument and was in full flow. The man knew how to do his job. I was delivering sound bites to fight for.

I’ve included a link to the BBC TV news programme but in case that is no longer available I’ve taken a photograph to show you what I look like when I’m in full flow.

There’s also a photo of the TV cameraman himself. He was taking shots of letters and photographs just in case they might be needed. In total he took 18 minutes of film although the piece they used was only a fraction of that.

Progress is moving along slowly. 6,500 nurses and healthcare workers will receive a nursing care refresher course. You can read about that in this newspaper article from the Leicester Mercury. I was taken onto Ward 2 at the Leicester General Hospital last Friday and shown the changes that had already been introduced regarding raising the profile of the nurse in charge – the big red badge scheme - and making hourly checks on all patients. And there’s a meeting next Tuesday at Leicester’s Town Hall to further discuss the issues regarding hospital complaints. I’ll be there and, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, I’ll be blogging about it.

Had it not been for this blog I doubt my complaint letter would have got anywhere near this far. I was demanding that changes be seen to be made but the hospital had merely sent a standard acknowledgement offering me a written report within 25 working days. A written report was not going to get changes either made or seen to be made. Nobody was really listening to me. Then I remembered The Leicester Mercury. They had picked up my blog postings before for their First Person feature and, as I anticipated, they were very interested to take up this issue. Once they were on board my complaint grew wings... and now it’s well and truly flying.

So if anyone tells you that keeping a blog never leads to anything worthwhile, don’t believe them.