Gardening writer talks about M.E

Gardening writing Lia Leendertz talks movingly about her husband's ME and the impact it has had on her family. She says 'when illness hits, it's easy for friends to slip away'.

Cromwell's a moth

I love cowl necks, cosy and lovely, but they catch crumbs - especially if mohair - and you feel like you have a Captain Birds Eye beard. Not so lovely. Makes me feel like a Tudor (the polo neck, not the beard - yes, I used this line in my book). I am reading Wolf Hall, everyone's called Thomas, it's hard going and my headache was so bad I could barely read at all last week. But the writing is beautiful, quirky, funny and moving and you feel the book is doing you good, you will be enriched after reading it. I'm only at page 160 and I know I will be many weeks finishing it (650 pages). When I googled Thomas Cromwell a while back the keys glitched and 'Cromwellsamoth' came up as the search term. I often think of this.

Scrambled

I had no butter and made scrambled eggs with olive oil instead, horrible. Surprised I can even taste as I still have sinus headache, it is literally doing my head in. I have a high pain threshold, but enough is enough.

Leaves & kids

I just watched four leaves fall and spin to the ground, one after the other. I wondered how they 'know' when to leave the tree, what is their precise moment. My cousin's nine-year-old was here last weekend and asked if she could rake. (I can't rake and always get others to do the leaves.) The feisty wee girl that she is got two piles of leaves. Her four-year-old brother 'helped'. It was warm enough to sit out with coats and my cousin and I had coffee in plastic cups and Hula Hoops while the kids worked. Then they started to argue over whose pile was whose and the rakes went back in the shed. After dinner, I was telling my cousin about the Pope and her girl drew this in five minutes. She is a wee talent.

Keep on keeping on...

I'm late to the party with this, I've had a bastard sinus headache off and on for days:

Thanks to M.E and me blog for this: Professor Malcolm Hooper writes to Vince Cable about MRC-funded PACE trials. Professor Hooper rocks, he keeps on keeping on. And blood ban made it to New Scientist (the pretence that the ban is for our sakes is farcical - and patronising - but hey ho). And a professor of theology criticises Lightning Process trials on children. Also was interested to learn about the Very Reverend Michael Mayne's book A Year Lost and Found in last weekend's Guardian. I had not heard of this book before.

The opposite of the moon

I'm not the first to have observed that the fascinating and moving rescue of the Chilean miners has been reminiscent of watching a moon landing. A grainy capsule, images being broadcast from an eerie, alien world, except this is down (almost half a mile) instead of up (250 000 miles). I can't help but worry for the last man to be rescued, waiting on his own for Phoenix to come sliding back for him. I've been thinking of Zola's Germinal, which we read in our second year at uni. I recall re-reading it for an exam, my cousin and I had gone to a caravan in the Trossachs for Easter and would go jogging first thing, study all day and get tipsy at night in front of the cosy stove. Those were the days. Good luck, brave miners, I hope by morning you are all 33 safely out, back with your loved ones. It must be sweet agony for those still waiting, 13 I think. I read this piece in Indy with interest. The book deal is already being sewn up. And Oakley - who donated the sunglasses to the emerging miners - are getting major free advertising. I am curious to know how long they have to wear dark glasses for, how long does it take to readjust? And not to dampen the joy of it all, but ... I hope these miners make a fortune from selling their stories to the media. They deserve it.

A tiny accordian

A week ago, I saw someone reading an ebook on the bus. An Amazon Kindle. The first time I'd seen an ereader in public. It felt odd, jarring, the moment has stayed with me. I sneaked a look at the text, it was clear, but the keys for navigating made the book look like a tiny accordian. I was going to ask the girl if she liked her Kindle but she had earphones in. I honestly can't imagine ever wanting an ereader. I am turning into George Mackay Brown.

I still don't know the fate of the Kindle version of The State of Me, if they have managed to iron out the glitches. I am hearing that there are issues with ebooks and asterisks.

BBC coverage of ME blood ban

Slowly, slowly, the tables are turning.

Are depressed people banned from giving blood?

No, I didn't think so.

In the words of Helen Fleet: Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!

*

Radio 4 Today Programme, Dr Charles Shepherd discusses the blood ban. 54 minutes in.

NICE and Aricept

Delighted to see that NICE has revised its stance on prescribing Aricept for dementia patients in the early stages. This is wonderful news indeed. I used to volunteer for Alzheimer's Scotland in the nineties so am well aware of the issues. Also, now experiencing the illness closer to home, a couple of family members. Just shows how wrong NICE can be.

Those corrections...

Forty seconds into The Review Show Jonathan Franzen realised there were errors in the UK edition of his new novel. I'd be furious too but 80 000 books being pulped makes me want to cry.

King's Media Award for Wessely

Wish I hadn't seen this. Sorry to ruin your weekends, but Prof. Simon Wessely has won an award for Media Personality of the Year. He has done so much harm to those of us with ME but, hey, don't let that get in the way of handing out spurious awards! The article I link to says: He has carved a reputation for being warm, receptive and at the forefront of research within his field...

This is, of course, not true of his research into ME, he has done nothing to further our understanding of the illness, simply obscured the truth and twisted things. Anyway, enough, have wasted too much energy on this individual.