Katie

 

My niece Katie was born in the autumn of 1976 so later this month she will be 48 years old. Born in north London, she had experienced many visits to western Ireland before she moved there for good at the age of eighteen.

If you heard her speaking now you would think she was entirely Irish and you would think the same if you witnessed her singing or playing her flutes and whistles in a bar in Kilfenora, Lisdoonvarna, Lahinch or Doolin. In this she has followed her father, my late brother Paul.

Her singing voice is lovely. She closes her eyes and sails away upon the back of the song to somewhere else. Virtually all of her singing has been of other people's songs but in 2020 she crossed the line and created an original song for my brother. As it says in the first line, "This song is dedicated to my father".

I have featured it before in "Yorkshire Pudding" but recently I was alerted to the existence of another video version on YouTube. Listening to it and watching the video unfurl brought tears to my eyes. I remember how Paul and Katie were together - like peas from the same pod and he loved her very much. The feeling was wholly mutual.

A loved someone might die but they never go away - not entirely. Please listen to "When You Were Big and I  Was Small"...

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milan

 Dreaming of

A Milanese adventure 

Days spent 

Marveling 

At architecture 

Perusing

The best fashion

And eating

My weight

In pasta

And gelato

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Truth

 Thinking on 

Good and noble 

Pursuits

To anchor me

In the present

And not 

Let my anxiety 

Run wild

I’m on

The spin cycle

With no end

In sight 

My rational state

Has been obliterated 

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Sunday

I borrowed a blood pressure monitor from the health centre but the "cuff"  you put round your upper arm was too tight for me. I guess my arms are a bit like Popeye's after a can of spinach. The cuff kept bursting apart as it inflated.

Anyway, we decided to invest in our own monitoring device which I did NOT order from Amazon! Instead I went to the "Boots" store at Heeley Retail Park. There were several to choose from.

As I was looking at them, I met a man who showed me which one he had bought. Some friendly chat followed and it turned out that he had only recently emerged from the hollow of "Long COVID". For three years he had been housebound - mostly languishing in bed but now he's up and about.

I said, "It must feel like being born again?"

He said, "You're right. I hadn't thought of it like that."

"Boots" is Britain's most famous pharmacy chain. At the prescriptions counter, a young shop assistant kindly opened the monitor box so I could see the size of the cuff inside.  Then I parted with some money after removing the padlock on my wallet.

Upon arriving home, I reopened the box and set up the blood pressure monitor. Soon, with the assistance of my personal nurse we were ready to go. The cuff was perfect and it squeezed my arm as if Bluto was gripping it. Unfortunately, both blood pressure readings we took were almost dangerously high - around 190/102 - confirming  the high readings taken at my health check on Friday morning.

The sooner I can get started on that antihypertensive medication the better.

In other Sunday news, I went down to Frances and Stewart's house to watch Hull City play Sunderland courtesy of Sky Sports TV. We lost by one goal to nil but our lads played well - especially in the second half. Their goal was controversial following accidental interference in play by the referee.

Stewart made the Sunday dinner which was a nice change for me and later I caught the number 88 bus up to Bents Green, meeting my quizmates in "The Hammer & Pincers". 

We were the overall  winners and would have scored 25/25 if I had remembered the correct title of the Christmas 1994 hit by East 17. It was "Stay Another Day" and not "Stay Now" as I had mistakenly recalled.  Such moments are not good for one's blood pressure.

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