a bit more detail ...

NORMAL SERVICE SOME WAY AWAY BUT...

a very BIG thank you to those who expressed concern at my whereabouts and pleasure when I briefly resurfaced. with only one and a bit fingers at my disposal this post has been cobbled together in bits and pieces and then edited. no apologies for lack of capitals ... typing is slow enough as it is.


we are experiencing the second bout of genuinely wintery weather here, which is pleasant in a way because it makes imminent english christmas seem plausible. i'm sitting here in the house on my own and I should be wrapping christmas presents while i have the chance. for reasons explained further on i'm working myself up to that.

during the previous and very short spell of cold i succeeded in mangling my right hand (see previous post).

friday is homework submission day and b. had forgotten to take hers with her; she was sufficiently upset i promised to come back with it. by the time i returned the gates which are heavy metal things had been closed - to keep the inmates in as well as the undesirables out. due to the cold and the fact that the gates haven't been hung so they close head on, but at an angle, the sliding bolt was sticking and hard to get at from the outside. when it gave it gave with a rush and my right hand got caught behind it - blood, broken bones the result.

it is now clear how close I]i came to losing a couple of fingers, so i'm hugely grateful to the surgical staff and all the other medical staff who got me to hospital and rebuilt the hand. The worst of the scaffolding has come off but it will be come time before the bones can safely be left to their own devices.

i'm also grateful to everyone else who has rallied round. everything has been difficult, i am being awkward about the prescribed pain killers and because of that i've not been sleeping well and so on and so forth.

a friend took me out of town to a big shopping centre and helped me to get gifts together for everyone - wrapping them with one good hand and a fist encased in hard plastic is this afternoon's project. the fat bastard has actually done a little house work, not a lot, but something.

i feel like a lot of life has passed me by in the meantime. i didn't even get much of a kick out of us getting 'our' ashes back, though i did get to listen to quite a bit of it despite the time difference between here and home. i haven't been to work, the only time i got out of town was to do the christmas shopping. when did teenage boys start looking so bloody young? i feel 100.

i am missing my mum and since we're not on speaking terms i could go on missing her for a while yet.

we will be doing christmas in fairly traditional fashion ... turkey and ham and the usual trimmings, mulled wine, pudding with brandy butter and so forth. i really need to apply myself to getting these presents wrapped before the other two get home.

once again thank you to michelle and wendy and lily for posting their thoughts and to everyone else too.

merry christmas to you all and very best wishes for a better year to come, however good this one might have been!