Frydmania

Three for two? No thanks…

We had a bit of a shock on Saturday when found out that our friend Neil had had a heart attack.

It happened while he was in Tesco pointing out an offer on ice cream (the 3 for 2 of the title) to the assistant at the checkout.  Whether it was the stress or just that it struck at that point, he doesn’t know, but it was enough to make him sit down for a few minutes.

When the pain in his chest had subsided (at this point he didn’t know what it was), he cycled home.  After carrying the shopping up a flight of stairs he felt bad again and took to his bed for a few minutes.  Realising it wasn’t going away, he asked his lodger - a nurse - what she thought about his symptoms.

She whisked him off to the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh and after an aspirin and a shot of morphine, he was pretty much straight into a laboratory to have a stent fitted (up the artery in his arm, across his chest and into his heart).  As shocked by it all as anyone, Neil then asked that a few people were called to let family and friends know what had happened.

I visited Neil in hospital yesterday afternoon and he appeared to be very well; mentally adjusting to needing to put off decorating the flat himself for a little bit and giving himself two months off work.  He had a second stent fitted this morning and is fine.

Fragility and care
What it brought home to me was just how fragile we are and that someone who I think of as being the most sensible person I know (healthy eating, cycling everywhere), was vulnerable.  I should point out at this point that he is in his 50s and only last year became a grandfather, so he’s not a contemporary. His lifestyle however is probably healthier than mine and so it was a bit of a wake up call.

So, lessons to learn even before the New Years resolutions can be put to paper:

1. Get your cholesterol levels checked to give yourself a base for future comparison
2. See if your blood pressure is where it should be
3. Adjust your lifestyle accordingly

I need to sort number 1 and then see what I can do with number 3 (number 2 is fine).So the moral of this story is not to be too intent about getting your moneys worth on 3 for 2 offers on ice cream tubs.

1 is enough and when you get it, it’s best to share.

Add comment December 29th, 2008

The land of bright socks

It’s a children’s classic in the making, I just have to work out how to write it.  Socks are making a reappearance as a welcome Christmas gift, if only on for fuel economy reasons.  (Or maybe early onset circulation options.  Take your pick.)

It’s interesting seeing the Saturday supplements reinventing present giving for tough times.  Evidently you can give cheap gifts if you buy them in multiples.  So buying lots of groovy socks for someone is acceptable, particularly because they are Useful.  (Unlike many of the options available in Saturday supplements.)

I had thought it one of the unwritten rules of life that not only do the meek inherit the earth, a wife can inherit her husband’s socks.  Oddly, this seems to work even if the husband’s feet are quite a lot larger than the wife’s.  At any rate, it’s got me through several years of marriage and much foot pounding up and down the Royal Mile to work and back. 

So it was a nice surprise for Dan to come home from the sales with socks for him and for her.  After years of black socks that eventually turn grey, I have some jazzy ones with stripes.  Dan has ones with matching heels and toes, in a range of colours, so you can do the conformist turn while shoes are on, while secretly aware that your socks are much more fun than anyone might suspect.

Sadly, there’s not a lot more I can write about socks without jokes about smelly feet.  That didn’t stop Spike Milligan coming up with an idea for a sound effect of hitting the wall with a sock full of custard.  He actually went to the BBC canteen to get custard to try it out, but evidently it didn’t sound as good in real life. 

Shame.  But maybe if you are still looking for a use for leftover stuffing, this could be just the thing…

Add comment December 29th, 2008