Sorry, sorry, I went a.w.o.l.

Yes, 'absent without leave', quite disgraceful, I know, but there was nothing I could do, what with this, that, the other and everything else that suddenly cropped up.  To begin with, I had to go to London to visit my old AmDram club who were performing Rattigan's diamond play The Deep Blue Sea.  Alas, the deep, blue sea was precisely where they should have deposited this particular production.  It was beyond awful!  I love amateur theatre most, no, some of the time because when it is good it is often brilliant but when we get it wrong we never do it by halves, it is a full, in your face slaughter of the innocent and unsuspecting!  Poor old Rattigan, a tortured man in many ways whose bitter, cramped life as a homosexual, rather like Maugham's, gave him an insight into repressed feelings which he demonstrated in his plays.  Having made a round journey of 240 miles to see our travesty of a production my particular feelings were anything but repressed!

Then, yesterday I had to take the 'Memsahib' to the hospital for sundry tests and briefings prior to her receiving a new hip next week.  Quite an interesting experience, actually.  For example, the building is only about two or three years old.  We checked in to reception and the lady duly ticked the box and then said, "I'm so sorry, Mrs. Duff, but the doctor is running 15 minutes late but he will get to you as soon as possible."  I nearly had to ask for emergency oxygen! An NHS receptionist actually apologising for a 15 minute delay!  Normally all you get is a grunt and a chewed biro pointing you to a row of benches upon which you sit and wait and wait and wait.  Needless to say, it became clear that this was a private hospital - American-owned, as it happens - which has been set up to undertake contract work for the NHS, this being the crafty way the Tories are subverting the Great Socialist Monolith that is the NHS.  It must be costing a fortune so I don't suppose it will last but, boy, am I glad to see it operating here and now.  The staff, working as they do in the private sector, have been trained to be cheerful and pleasant and unlike their NHS counterparts they do not seem to look upon their patients as a bloody nuisance.  Of course, the only thing that really matters is that the surgeon does a good, competent job, not least because I can't have the 'Memsahib' lying about the place for too long unable to attend to my wants and needs!

Anyway, sorry for my long absence but as I am about to go down with 'man-flu' I will not be straying far from my warm garret and this computer.

 

Comments

[david morris]

Best wishes to you & SWMBO.

Probably best if you don't read this :

http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=83577

Kind regards !

[Andra]

You will NOT have man flu.
The Chinaman currently has a monopoly on man flu and I do not believe there is room in the world for two of you to suffer so much at once.
The Chinaman has been wallowing in his man flu for a good month now and he's really got the act down pat. I even had to call an ambulance to take him to hospital on Wednesday and since then he is thoroughly enjoying a spot of languishing in his bedroom with the air conditioning blasting out at 200 decibels per second.
I've hidden the bell so that's something.
Well, the barramundi fishing season opened several hours ago so I expect that to bring about a quite miraculous recovery any minute now.
Pity I don't eat seafood - I expect the house to be overflowing with the damned things quite soon.
I wish the memsahib well with her op. But she'll enjoy the rest away from Duffdom.

[Up2L8]

"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Duff, but the doctor is running 15 minutes late but he will get to you as soon as possible."

Wow! Such specialty treatment. Better than an 9:00 a.m. appointment, taken into exam room 9:05 a.m., then by 10:20 a.m., when in an almost comatose state, nurse pokes head into doorway with announcement. “Doctor will be running abit late.” Instantly the mind screams “NO FREAKIN SH*T.” But, what she ultimately hears flowing smoothly and as sweet and syrupy as newly harvested honey, “Oh! Thank you Nurse.”

[A K Haart]

"Normally all you get is a grunt and a chewed biro pointing you to a row of benches upon which you sit and wait and wait and wait."

We've all been there. Never make any other appointments if you have an NHS appointment beforehand.

I hope all goes well with the hip.

[JK]

Er Andra?

Do fix that Chinese feller a nice toddy. The research is in:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9824136/Man-Flu-might-not-be-a-myth-after-all.html

[Andra]

JK - many thanks for that article. The good lady doctor seems like a reasonable person but I will remain sceptical, for the moment at least.
I read most of the article out to the Chinaman and he is delighted of course.
But barramundi season will lure him out of his sick bed and onto the river bank very soon.... tides are apparently important.

[David Duff]

Sorry for the delay in responding to your comments.

Andra, I suspect from your comment that the Chinaman is suffering with rather more than just 'Man Flu', so wish him well and take him some Benny Goodman tapes to play in hospital.

'Uppers', you should have been a writer - you capture the scene exactly!

JK, normally the words "female academic" have me looking for a slit-trench but that lady is obviously possessed of a first class brain!