Very Big Print

Hello Folk.  You may be wondering why things have been quiet on Rambles lately, and on the sending of postcards and snail mail to my friends abroad.

The answer is that I have been unwell for much of the year so far and, of greater relevance, my eye muscles have gone on strike.  As a result I am presently only partially sighted and need everything to be in 

BIG PRINT.  

Or, rather, in 

• 

I am anaging to read incoming postcards thanks to a 10x magnifying glass but it’s not easy to write while holding a magnifier and shining an extra bright light on the paper.  As for reading books – that is very difficult, incredibly slow and headache-making.  I’m really missing reading.   And I have my computer screen on x300 but that causes its own problems… 

I have a new round of opticians’ appointments beginning in March and hopefully they will help but because it is the muscles that are the problem the vision varies by the minute and a prescript[tion lens that may work at 9 a.m. may not work at 1 p.m.

I’ve been playing with speech to text apps and one or two of those are working fairly well though some of the attempts are hilarious.  The principal moral is ‘Don’t cough in the middle of dictation!.’

That is my moan for the month and my explsnation to those who are missing my communications.

On the more positive side I have a second granddaughter due in a month or so and a great neice or nephew later in the year – congratulations to Lucy and Jay.  Since October 2016 there have been babies popping up (or out) all over the place.  It’s wonderful

.

Meanwhile Son-who-supports-Liverpool-FC had his 30^th birthday earlier this month.  They grow up quickly nowadays!

Partner-who-loves-tea and I celebrated Valentine’s Day with coffee and a teacake/crumpet at Isobelles (A great little coffee shop in Heswall which has everything one could want apart from an apostrophe}.  She then further celebrated.by catching flu and has consequently had to cut down her woking hours and is not leaving the house until 6 a.m. and getting back by 8.30 p.m.  She even had a day off at the weekend! 

What else has been happening?  I had lunch recently with a former work colleague I hadn’ seen for an unbelievable 28 years.  One of the three closest colleagues of my working career he kept my head above water by taking the strain when David died and by always being there for me.  It was wonderdful to meet up again and we are doing dinner with our partners soon.

Mac and Annabel have just had their third anniversary of being at The Willows.  Being rescue cats they are a lot older than that but still have the energy to race around the house chasing each other.  According to Partner-who-loves-tea Annabel attacks Mac. I think it’s the other way round.

I have at last started clearing the clutter in the loft and so far eight bags of books have gone to the charity shops and a further ten are awaiting transport.  It takes real courage to get rid of books.

Having now found a way of seeing what i’ve written  on the computer screen you may get more news again soon….

The Crocodile

If you should meet a crocodile,

Don’t take a stick and poke him;

Ignore the welcome in his smile,

Be careful not to stroke him.

For as he sleeps upon the Nile,He thinner gets and thinner;

And whene’er you meet a crocodile

He’s ready for his dinner.

                           Anon.

Just my luck..

This little chap

This little chap, otherwise known as GB, became a grandfather over Christmas.  Congratulations to all concerned.  (I know I've shown this picture before - or a variation of it - but one can't have too much of a good thing.)