18^th December 2016

Dear All,

Tuesday was a long day. It did not start well as we arrived at Addenbrooke’s before 7 am and the nurse greeted Kate with “it has been very busy on A & E and we haven’t any beds in J3” When the operating list was read out Kate was not on it and they eventually discovered that she should have been in a different ward despite her paperwork saying otherwise. When she arrived at the correct ward she was greeted with “You’re late”. Unfortunately she was the last on the list so had to wait until 4.40 pm for her op. She came out of theatre at 6.30. I collected her at 9.45 pm as they are keen to vacate beds but I think she would have been happier staying in overnight as she was feeling sick and delicate. She has been taking it “easy” since – or her version of “easy” and gradually improving every day. She will not know the next step until after an appointment on the 30th. The operation area is very sore so sometimes it is difficult to sleep the hours to which she is accustomed!

Friends and family have been very good with many phone calls, cards, visits and bunches of flowers. Esther even found a jigsaw puzzle with Wirksworth on it in an effort to encourage relaxing.

Before she went in for the op. Kate was determined to eradicate the remnants of our super strain of bamboo. This counts as one of my major gardening errors. It serves me right for nicking the original cutting from “Ormonde” in Ipswich when Jose was in residence. It proved to be the most vigorous strain possible and although we cut, sprayed, burnt and eventually dug up the main clump last year the runners had spread 15 feet in all directions. Kate decided that half the lawn should be dug up to physically remove these runners and she chipped away at this for several weeks. Several dustbin fulls have been despatched and hopefully the majority has now been eliminated. We now need to replace the lawn!

Just about done!

I joined the Thursday walk as Kate was happy to be left and friends called in anyway. The walk this week started at Balsham and took in Horseheath and West Wickham. It is an area of outstanding glutinous mud and quite a slog as our boots ended up like lead weights. The day started misty and the sun never really got going.

Near Horseheath

The final “Biographies” session took the form of winter readings and quizzes – I presented Tom Lehrer’s “Christmas Carol” – spoken not sung!

We hope to be off to Hove for three days from Christmas Eve and have been invited to spend some days with friends in their cottage in Norfolk over the New Year as long as Kate’s appointments and state of health allow it.

Meanwhile I hope you all enjoy Christmas:

“Christmas time is here by golly,

Disapproval would be folly,

Deck the halls with hunks of holly,

Fill the cup and don’t say “when”.

Kill the turkeys, ducks and chickens,

Mix the punch drag out the Dickens,

etc – you know the rest?

Love

Mike & Kate