Phew, what a week that was! So much to talk about, we might have to split this blog over a couple of days. I might even revert to daily postings over the Christmas break. Or I might get a life instead - who can tell?
Firstly, the important stuff.
Matt was in hospital for six days in total, they let him out on Wednesday in the end. After optimistic predictions of a Monday release were dashed (to his great disappointment) things moved on steadily until he was able to make good his escape. I believe there is a half-dug tunnel behind one of the gent's toilets, if any current inmates are interested...
I got to see him on Sunday, when he was still in some discomfort and the drains from his neck were still draining steadily - and a lack of sleep was making him probably feel even worse than he was anyway. But by Tuesday, when I got over for my final visit, the 'old' Matt back was again, one of the drains was out and the other was likely to follow imminently.
The body is a marvellous thing - cut it up, take bits out - but give it a couple of days and it steadily makes itself better, re-routing fluids and joining ends of cut flesh back together again. Let's hope the self-healing process continues - with a bit of a nudge from the radiation in the New Year!
At the time of writing, Matt is back home, Facebooking and chilling. Half the staples are out with the rest to follow on Monday.
Oh, and everyone who's emailed or otherwise passed on their thoughts, prayers and best wishes for Matt - thank you all, it's much appreciated and good to know that people - even complete strangers in some cases - have such generosity of spirit and goodwill. You look for positives where you can at times like this, and this is certainly one of the biggest for me.
The stresses of the week were not confined to me - the car has been complaining more and more about the miles I have been subjecting it to, what with the weekly Staines run now augmented with a diversion or three to Bath. Finally it spat its dummy out big time on the Tuesday night run to Bath and back. An intermittent misfire now became permanent, preventing me getting above 2000 rpm and more pertinently - above 60 mph on the motorway (50 mph on any sort of uphill slope). With my plans of nursing the car through the Staines project and getting it sorted in the New Year dashed, I had to get it fixed - and quick, otherwise I wasn't coming home at the weekend!
So - Wednesday morning, and I'm trawling the internet for local Nissan garages. The nearest was in Shepperton, about 15 minutes drive away (or half an hour, with the car limping along at its current pace). My plan was to leave Staines the following lunchtime. What were the chances of getting it booked in, diagnosed and fixed within 36 hours? Slim to none, I assumed.
But no, thanks to the good people at West London Nissan (free plug, chaps) the car was booked in Thursday morning, checked and fixed by lunchtime and I was checked out of the hotel and on the road by two thirty. The rapidly arriving snow, coupled with my nervousness that the 'fix' may prove to be temporary, caused me to change my plan to detour across and see Matt so I headed home. And got back without incident, thankfully.
Stress levels still hovering around the 'about to blow' indicator, I got in to see that in my absence, two parcels had been delivered and left a) with the neighbour and b) behind the bin. Went out to the bin. Nothing. Looked in the bin. Nothing (well, a load of rubbish, but you know what I mean). Mrs W arrives home, not to a lovely welcome, but a tirade about the potential loss of half my Christmas shopping. Bless her, she could obviously see I was on the verge of complete and utter breakdown and resisted the temptation to punch my lights out. Instead, she knocked on the neighbour's door to find that not only did he have the parcel delivered directly to him, but had also taken in the parcel lurking behind the bin. Panic over.
Mrs W then - sensibly - went out to another Christmas do, leaving me to slump in front of the telly, with drink and curry, to watch the Everton Under-11s take on the mighty BATE and slump to a creditable (but wholly irrelevant) 1-0 defeat. It was nice to see the kids getting a runout, hopefully the experience will spur them on to fight for a regular position in the men's team in due course. Adam Forshaw, Shane Duffy and Jamie Bidwell caught the eye of the new starters, and the old man, Carlo Nash, looked comfortable in goal. They might not - yet - have the stature of the Arsenal kids, but they did not disgrace themselves either.
Today's soundtrack comes courtesy of the Hindu Love Gods, a one-off 'supergroup' comprising REM without Michael Stipe, but with Warren Zevon. A drunken session of blues standards and other covers led to the album, which sounds like what it is - a group of mates relaxing (suitably refreshed) and having fun. No classics, but 'good time' stuff that brings a tap to the foot and a smile to the face.Tell you what, you search for 'Hindu Love Gods' on YouTube and you get some funny stuff coming up. What you don't get is any drunken blues. So let's try something else!
Click on the DivShare player that should have mysteriously appeared below, and you'll hear the HLG's take on Prince's 'Raspberry Beret', and very fine it is too!
Oh, Kev - I'll get to the Depeche stuff over the weekend - I promise!
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