A 'Healthy' Week

I've chosen that title, not because I've been doing a lot of exercise, or visited a health farm, or anything so virtuous.  It's just that my health seems to have been fairly well up in the week's agenda.  This has been the second week of my much trumpeted 'Phased Retirement Plan' (I promise to put the trumpet away soon ... the same tune can get boring!), so once more there are no exciting travels to report.

The week began as usual with the early prayer breakfast for the men's group at the church.  The leader's printer had run out of ink at the weekend, so he 'made do' by very efficiently reading the notes from his mobile phone!  Then came my first health-y act of the week, a visit to the surgery for the annual review of how I'm coping with my mild asthma condition.  This went smoothly and, after praising me for losing some weight and extolling my blood pressure, the nurse asked if I'd ever had my cholesterol level checked. When I said I didn't think so, she printed out a form for me to get an appointment to this end.  Amazingly, this was arranged for the next morning, in the adjoining town.

In odd moments for the last couple of weeks I've been thinking about, and reacting to, an environmental problem posed by my motorhome.  It has nothing to do with polluting the atmosphere, however, but rather with the internal environment.  I'm feeling 'lost' in such a large cab, after spending much of the last twelve years and more driving a car-derived van, and I decided that a suitably modified top fitted to an existing plastic box would both overcome the difficulty of where to put things within reach, but not free to roll all over the floor, and also deal with the absence of anywhere to park a drink while on the move.

Once the idea had formed in my mind, schooldays were recalled, and the skills I'd learned in technical drawing lessons fifty years ago came to the fore.  In less than an hour I'd created plans and elevations, and determined precisely how such a device could be made.  The next weekend found me in a convenient DIY store purchasing materials, and this Tuesday, having returned from providing a blood sample, I was able to complete the final stages of its construction.

Wednesday's endeavours were not for my own health, but for that of the motorhome.  A few weeks ago a friend pointed out some evidence of damp having been a problem in the past.  Although there were no signs that water was still getting in, when I spoke to the dealer, he could see where the problem had been, and said that, to be sure that all was well now, he'd like to re-seal the mounting of the ladder on the back of the vehicle.  This was the purpose of my morning excursion.  Next, I performed the pre-season ritual of filling the fresh-water tank and applying a sterilising agent, in time to empty and refill it before my first 'live' expedition at Eastertime.

Fired with enthusiasm, I decided to clean the toilet, where someone - probably me - had been treading the floor with muddy shoes.  While I did so, it seemed a good idea to open the window for some fresh air.  The catch seemed not to meet exactly and I wondered if the window itself had slid out of alignment with the frame.  A quick attempt at adjusting this sent all thoughts of the interior cleaning from my mind, as I found myself with one hand supporting the weight of the window while the other was trying to refit the top edge into the channel whence it had fallen!  It soon became apparent that the only remedy was another trip to the dealer, to get it done properly ... well, in fact, to get it done at all!  What a relief, I thought, to have taken the wise decision to buy the motorhome from a local dealer.  How would I have coped, I wondered, if the only source of help, instruction and co-operation had been even fifty miles away ... and many of the vehicles I'd considered were being sold at the far end of the country!

Thursday was a bit of an admin day.  It was raining, but I needed some shopping, and I'd also remembered that I needed to call in at the library, so why not put the two together?  Sadly, after walking a few hundred yards in the rain, I discovered that the library was closed!  Home once more, I dried out, and focussed my attention on tidying the desk and catching up on delayed TV programmes that had been queuing up to be watched.

Today, though, it was back to the health itinerary, with an aortic aneurism screening appointment.  They do seem to focus more these days on preventative medicine, which is very reassuring.  I decided to make the trip to the surgery in Hitchin for this appointment on the bus.  It was an absolute delight to sit at the front and as I watched the driver navigate his long vehicle through the traffic, I recalled teenage holidays at Great Yarmouth, when I'd done the same thing.  I used to follow those 'sixties drivers intently, watching how and when they used the pre-selector gearbox - something that is probably quite out of date these days - and I wonder whether the experiences of those times may have kindled my desire to drive a bigger vehicle, an ambition that I'm now able to fulfil with the motorhome.

The scan revealed no problems, but when I got home and opened the post, I found the results of the blood test, which revealed a 'raised' cholesterol level. Unexpectedly, and helpfully, this news was accompanied by some welcome notes of what foods would be useful to combat this situation, and which ones I ought to avoid.  I now have a mental list of certain contents of my store-cupboard that 'should be eaten up, and then not replaced'.  I felt encouraged by sentences like 'don't try to change everything at once' and 'a small change can often make a lot of difference'.

Now I'm rather looking forward to the exercise offered by a return to work on Monday!