A quick search through my blog confirms that I have written about Clumber Park before. Go here for example.
This time we were there to meet up with my friend Tony and his wife, Pauline. They have a caravan (American: trailer) and they had driven it down from East Yorkshire for a few away days at the Clumber Park caravan and camping site.
It was a still and pleasant day in our early autumn. Two other old friends - Glyn and Jackie had become a little lost finding the site but they turned up at midday following their little driving adventure in the woods.
We sat outside under the trees and ate sandwiches, catching up with family news and reminiscing about old times.
Both Pauline and Tony have suffered health trials this year. Tony suffered a minor stroke in March and though he has made a steady recovery, he is still not quite the man he was before. After forty years as a nurse, Pauline had a knee replacement in June and has been told that she needs to have both of her hips replaced. Her back also requires surgery - fusing at least two vertebrae together in the base of her back. Her stoicism is impressive.
I guess that these are the kind of things that happen as men and women grow older. Very few people seem to reach old age without health issues and as some readers may recall, I have had my own issues with blood pressure this past year.
In fact, I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning. Though my daily cocktail of pills has been amended several times, my blood pressure is still too high so I expect there will be another change to the cocktail. I also had a blood test on Monday - specifically testing for Type 2 diabetes. I believe it is called the HbA1c test. It was previously discovered that I am a borderline case and that is why I stopped taking sugar in hot drinks and why I plan to begin taking weight loss reduction medication in the near future having been mysteriously refused by one well-known provider.
We were back in Sheffield long before three this afternoon - ready to pick our darling girl Phoebe up from her school. We were allowed inside her classroom and Phoebe led us round her new learning environment. She seems to have settled in very nicely. After a week she said to me, "I'm a schoolgirl now" and so she is.
At our house, the mild chili con carne I had prepared on Wednesday night was sitting in our fridge ready for the family meal. I boiled some rice, grated some cheese and warmed up pitta breads. Then for dessert we had shop-bought sticky toffee pudding with ice cream.
Before I knew it, Thursday was almost over and I had plonked myself down in our study to tap out this scintillating account of an ordinary day in The Life of Yorkshire Pudding - aged 71 years and 359 days.
It was all going so well until the sticky toffee pudding and ice cream!
ReplyDeleteI don't have it every day doctor!
DeleteI think you're doing amazingly well health-wise from what you've told us here on the blog. High blood pressure is important to address, but with all the walking you do you're still quite fit, and that counts for a lot. Glad you got to visit Phoebe's classroom!
ReplyDeleteAs I have said before, my father, my oldest brother and my youngest brother all died in their sixties so I count myself lucky to be almost 72 and still going strong - like my remaining brother in France.
DeleteYour ordinary day actually sounds like a very good day. Aging is not for the faint of heart as I have certainly had my share of medical issues as I've gotten older. I am glad you are keeping track of your blood pressure and blood sugar.
ReplyDeleteThis keeping track could certainly lengthen my life Michael.
DeleteSounds like a pleasant day. Good luck with your doctor's appointment.
ReplyDeleteThank you Ellen. Kindness radiates from you.
DeleteAs Michael said, old age is not for sissies. But go easy on the sticky toffee puddings!!!
ReplyDeleteYou are ahead of me in the new reality show - Race for Heaven!
DeleteA little bit of sicky toffee pud is quite benefical at times, especially with ice cream, for a young whippersnapper like you. A pretty good Thursday I'd say. Good luck with Friday.
ReplyDeleteI prefer sTicky toffee pudding to "sicky" toffee pudding as I do not find eating vomit pleasurable. Thanks for calling by again Shammy.
Deleteoooops!
DeleteYou did some interesting things today like visit with old friends and see your daughter's school You also did some worrying about your health.
ReplyDeleteSummed up nicely Red.
DeleteI like reading about 'ordinary' life. I commiserate about the borderline diabetes as I've been sent on a diabetes prevention course by my GP. The rule of thumb is anything nice is to be avoided.
ReplyDeleteI will have to avoid you then Debbie!
DeleteAs Steve has said, all the walking you do must make a big difference to your health, and combined with a few simple adjustments to your diet (as you have already started, such as not taking sugar in your hot drinks anymore) the blood pressure and other issues should not be too hard to solve.
ReplyDeleteHow nice that you got to see Phoebe's class room! At schools here, walking by I often see signs such as "Parents stop here", showing that they don't want anyone but the children and staff beyond the doors, and often not even past the borders of the playground.
Yes, she's a schoolgirl now! In a few short years, her little sister will follow suit.
Unlike Phoebe, Little Margot seems to like playing with dolls. She doesn't talk much as she is not yet two but she told me that her dolly had just done a "poo" and that is why she was taking its clothes off. Please read what Andrew (below) wrote about parents etc. being allowed to visit classrooms.
DeleteHaven't visited Clumber Park in years, we used to go fairly often - even got engaged there (to my wife of 26+ years).
ReplyDeleteYou romantic old so-and-so Cap'n!
DeleteSounds like a perfect day out - good weather and meeting up with friends in pleasant surroundings.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that even mild spices are good for you if you have high blood pressure and oh dear YP - no sticky toffee pudding (or many other puddings either) if you are borderline diabetic. Best to consult with your doctor.
If you were a doctor I think you would be very strict Carol! Would you use a whip?
DeleteNo one else seems to have picked up on the odd expression of your age.
ReplyDeleteYour enviable fitness level will hold you in good stead but getting your blood pressure right is important.
The uncles took our five year old niece to her primary school in about 2012. "Come in, uncles'. What? We can't enter the school. "Come on, you stupid old poofs." Ok, she didn't say that, but she was puzzled at our reluctance. Parents milled about inside the open classroom as students ran around and played. We then attended school assembly. We thought this lack of formality was all very odd. Schools are for children to learn, not for parents to socialise.
I've thought about this often since, and I've concluded that such familiarity between parents and teachers has done no good at all.
While Jo's school was very good, with the students all having very decent and respectable parents, not all are in schools. Teachers now directly receive a lot of grief from parents, and I put it significantly down to the dropping of the barriers and the lack of formality between the two.
Can all guess I am old?
You make a very interesting point about the mystique of schools. Opening up could be counter-productive but I am not so sure about that myself. As they always say - Knowledge is Power.
DeleteHope you get your blood pressure and No.2 diabetes settled or at least manageable. Sounds a good visit to friends though a slightly strange meeting place.
ReplyDeleteJust returned. Blood sugar result remains static - on the very cusp of Type 2 diabetes. Increased dosage for one of my blood pressure tablets.
DeleteIn response to your subtle trawl: happy birthday for next Wednesday. (If you are spared.)
ReplyDeleteFor my 72nd birthday may I request a small puppet-like effigy of your good self with pins Marcie?
DeleteI've started having sugar a lot more. Need to get my weight and energy up.
ReplyDeleteI can recommend a diet of patties and Tetley's bitter.
DeleteAs we get older, our bodies signal for us to slow down and savor the good life.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear that your blood sugar remains stable, if high. The things you are doing to reduce it will bring good results over time.
ReplyDeleteChristmas beckons, and with it, school productions. I wonder if Phoebe will be an angel or a sheep? I wonder if she will enjoy a Nativity play - they seem to be disappearing, rather, which is a shame - they are part of our culture after all, no matter what your beliefs, or lack of them.
I hate to say this but the sugar you consume in hot drinks is probably not the main contribution to the total amount of sugar in your diet. But sounds like you're doing pretty good and of course, as everyone has pointed out, your walking is as good a thing as you can do for your health.
ReplyDeleteKeep on with it. Keep on living!
nobody told me, as a child, that old age was such a minefield or lottery of health..... hope your new tests yield good results!!
ReplyDeleteI tried to cut out sugar in hot drinks but found it impossible. My solution was to cut the number of hot drinks I have per day.
ReplyDelete