Deirdre Geraghty

After weeks of phoning and leaving my mobile phone turned off Vodafone have finally transferred my old mobile phone number to my new phone. They have also transferred the credit I had. So we got there in the end. Phew!

My ex-husband went into hospital this week for an operation to treat an aneurysm. He seemed to come through okay but there is now a possibility that he has had a minor stroke. All our best wishes are with him.

My son helped me buy a new mobile phone on Xmas eve but they couldn’t transfer my old number straight away. I have waited all week, with my phone turned off, for them to transfer the number. Now I am being told it will be done by next Tuesday. I hope so.

I saw my neighbour and his daughter during the week and he invited me in for fish and chips on Friday. It is something I haven’t done in a long time so I was very pleased to sit down with this family of four and eat plaice and chips. Yum!

I went away this Xmas. I didn’t think I could do it but with the help of ‘assisted travel’ I managed to get to my son’s house in Bedfordshire. I had to get 2 trains and that was looking unlikely because of the weather. Assisted travel is very good as they actually put you on the right train and phone through to your next destination where one is met and put on the next train. Brilliant! Anyway I had a lovely time at their home and now I am back home along with a new mobile phone and a new landline. Lots to learn which I find very difficult but I have a good teacher.

Happy Xmas to everyone.

Fruzsina, my best friend for so many years died 3 years ago today from a brain tumour. I miss her so much. I still reach out for the phone to call her and I still have her number in my phone contacts. She stood by me through all the ups and downs of life and was a tower of strength through all the years of my illnesses. She was not family yet I loved her like a sister. So I feel sad.

I have been suffering with bursitis in my shoulder. That is inflammation of the bursa which is a sac of fluid in the joint. They are going to give me a guided injection of cortisone into it – guided during an ultrasound scan. I had hoped it would have been done long before now but I am still waiting for an appointment. Never mind.

In order to be objective and overcome one’s conditioning it is sometimes helpful to try to see things as an alien would. What would an alien think to see so many humans balancing on high heels. These shoes hurt the feet and can lead to problems later on and, apart from anything else, are difficult to walk in. The reason so many women wear them is that they feel they make them look more attractive and they are conditioned to accept them from early childhood – I know – I used to wear them too. Are the wearers simple for wearing such daft shoes?

I love cats. When my cats are sitting on me at 4.00 am or Molly is walking back and forth across my chest which she has discovered wakes me up quicker than tapping my face I think of the cartoons ‘Simon’s cat’ and it makes me chuckle.