Wednesday, October 31, 2012

All Is Well That Ends Well.



Roberto Matta.

Although yesterday did not begin quite as I wish it had it's certainly became much better after my shower.

Both I and Richie enjoyed a delicious stew he had made along with home-baked bread, desert was ice cream fruit.

The enjoyable evening was concluded with another edition of Later with Jools Holland which was very good.

As usual Jools had old favourites as well as totally new performers; one of those not performing who he talked with was Adam Ant.

The show started with a number by The Killers which was good, they were much better than I remembered them which was nice to see and hear.

The other performers were Jackie De Shannon, Valerie June, Polica, Kristina Train, Cody Chesnutt.

It was a good show and both of us are looking forward to seeing the extended show this Friday night.

At 19.30 our good friend Lin, who runs the British General Stores will come around to have dinner with us, I'm looking forward to it tremendously,, It made me realise that since August 2008 we have not invited anybody to eat with us.
That is a real shame, and it's something that we can change, our plan Is now to regularly invite friends to come and eat with us.

Right now Richie is cooking some delicious curry dishes which he will serve with basmati rice as well as rotis, it smells yummy and I can hardly wait.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

A Total Contrast To Yesterday.

Roberto Matta.

It's been totally different day to day than it was yesterday, we were much later doing my exercises and getting me showered, dressed and back in bed.

Yesterday I was already back in bed just after 12.00, today it's got much later and I wasn't back in bed until 17.00.

It is a shame we did not manage to be as early as we were yesterday, but I'm not going to beat myself up or reproach myself for this as tomorrow is another day.

Right now I'm going to keep this short but before I look for artwork by Roberto Matta I need to finish this and write the labels and titles for both blogs.

Tonight there is another edition of Later with Jools Holland on BBC2 which I am looking forward to, I'm very curious who will be on the show I guess all be revealed at 23.00 tonight.

Monday, October 29, 2012

A Pleasant Start To The Week.



 
Roberta Matta.

Today Richie and I did the exercises early enough for him to take me to the bathroom to be showered and dressed as well as perfumed.

All this was done before Miranda; the wound nurse from the rehabilitation clinic came to check on the wound.

We were in fact ready just before 1200 which she is due to be here, as it was we had to wait until 1215 before Miranda arrived.

It was really good to be showered and dressed waiting for the wound nurse to arrive rather than to be got out of bed just before or just as she arrives.

Being ready made me feel much better, 1215 when Miranda arrived I was ready for her to inspect the wound which she did immediately.

She removed some tissue that she thought was probably stopping the progress of the healing, after which a photo was taken and Miranda left after 10 minutes.

After which Richie has put me back into bed, then they went into the kitchen and made us a delicious lunch, vegetarian sausages, chips and cauliflower cheese.

The plan is to eat some delicious pumpkin soup this evening with garlicky croutons and fresh fruit.

I am enjoying the day immensely, Richie is too so I think we will try and replicate an early start every day, I'm sure that will improve the days for us.

It’s brilliant that we have had our lunch, and I written my blog post for today before Mathilde, my physiotherapist gets here for our Monday appointment.

Nice to be ready so early it has put a different complexion on the day and I must say that it's one that I like very much, nice to feel on top of things.

What a pleasant way to start the week, much better than rushing to keep up, this way we both feel relaxed, positive and better able to cope.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

A Wonderfully Relaxed Sunday.



Roberto Matta.

On Friday night I asked Richie for my duvet as it was too cold for me to sleep another night with just two blankets in a duvet cover.

Up until yesterday, it had been enough however now it cold enough for extra cover to be needed.

Yesterday when Richie went out he was glad that he put on his long johns as well as a warm jumper under his coat; it was a very cold enough for gloves.

When he returned, I heard that it was extremely cold outside and there was already a blast cold arctic wind.

Despite cold weather our good friend Lin, who runs British General Stores on the 1e Constantijn Huygensstraat, Amsterdam came by with some things from the shop for us.

The lovely little picture book shop is on the corner of the Overtook, it is well worth a visit as it’s a charming shop.    


Lin brought us everything I asked for on the phone, which were tins of delicious smoked Cornish pilchards, oatcakes, HP sauce, vegetarian suet, pickled onions and lemon and ginger tea bags.

She gave us something to try it was a new product in her shop which was a hot pepper sauce made with roasted peppers.

It is a very hot sauce with a lovely smoky flavour due to the fact that the peppers were roasted one drop or two is all that's needed to give a wonderful smoky barbecue flavour to any dish.

Lin told that she had 5 more all from the same company; Richie and I are keen to try them all out as we love hot sauces.

Contrary to thinking hot pepper sauce does not overwhelm the other flavours in fact it brings out the flavour of the food which is why we like it so much.

Late last night we watch the days of football games on Match of the Day which was packed with exciting games.

At the moment Richie has taken the dogs for a quick run around the Rembrandt Park from which they will be returning shortly hungry for their dinners.

As soon as they've had their dinner, Richie will serve our dinner which at the moment is in the oven, I can smell the delicious aroma.

We're eating baked potatoes, cauliflower cheese and a delicious salad followed by fresh fruit, raspberries, strawberries and blueberries.

After the late news tonight there is another addition of Match of the Day so we can see the games that were played today.

I'm looking forward to finding in other piece of artwork from Roberto Matta and seeing Richie, the dogs and enjoying dinner and the football later on.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

A Wonderful Show.



Roberto Matta. 

Watching the extended edition of Later with Jools Holland last night was lovely, it is good to hear all of the performers each doing a few numbers.

The show kicked off with a bang with Alice Cooper and his shit hot band, who played fast and furious rock 'n' roll just as it should be played.

I found myself wishing as did Richie, that we could go to their Halloween concert in London to see them perform, that would be a brilliant gig.

The next act was Bloc Party who were magnificent, they are an excellent band, good musicians and good lyrics, about people's right to determine their own future.

Listening to Dionne Warwick singing, while Jools Holland was accompanying her on the piano was a very moving experience, I had tears in my eyes.

Sitting behind Jools Holland and listening intently was the lovely Paloma Faith, a wonderful quirky singer who was there to support another artist, Josephine.

Then we saw Josephine who has a lovely voice and plays the guitar as well, a band and backing singers were good, she looks wonderful and gives a polished performance.

It was most enjoyable to Charlie Pride singing; he has such a sweet voice and is such a sweet man.

Richie was recounting an anecdote about him which was that if anybody did not like Charlie Pride they must be a confirmed racist.

The other very good band was ALT-J, who I thoroughly enjoyed watching and listening to them, they are a band that really means it.

I enjoyed watching them very much especially the drummer who was amazing, the other drummer I love watching was the one in Alice Cooper's band.

Alice Cooper played the first number of the show and they were the ones to also play the last number and then it was over much too quickly.

While the show it was great fun, it ended as always much too quickly for my liking, one good thing is that there will be more next week.

Friday, October 26, 2012

A Brilliant Day.



 
Roberto Matta.

It really is colder today, now the weather is gradually becoming more like winter weather.

On Saturday night the clocks will go back one hour, something that I find really regrettable because we miss seeing the lovely autumn sunsets.

Again this is a situation that I can do nothing about so I'm not going to let myself become upset by it happening.

We've had a really good day, our good friend Anja came to visit us as we had requested week.

As it is her 50th birthday on Monday next week we wanted to give her presents as well as a cake.

Richie made a lovely chocolate cake which had home-made probably jam in the middle and chocolate icing over the top decorated with fresh raspberries.

The cake looked delicious, and we are both hoping that Anja and Erik, her partner as well as their son Bosse will enjoy it.

Anja looked very pleased when we gave her the presents and the cake and we will also very pleased and happy to be able to do this for her.

She is a very special friend and it is a pleasure to be able to give her pleasure as we seem to do this afternoon.

Now I'm looking forward to the delicious dinner that Richie is cooking for us and later on there is good music on later with Jools Holland on BBC two at 24.30 to make the day even better.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Being Philosophical.



 
Roberto Matta.

It's lovely to see that the change in the temperature still happens quite suddenly, last week Friday was a beautiful warm sunny day but not this Friday.

The weekend was not quite as warm but it was still warm enough for Mathilde, my physiotherapist to sit up on her roof terrace enjoying the weather.

On Monday this week it was also warm enough, it was 24°, for me to enjoy the window being open all afternoon until 1800 then it started become too cold.

Since Monday it is not being warm enough for me to be able to have the windows open again which is a shame, but Monday was an unexpected treat

While it has been cooler up to now it has not been very cold yet, but apparently it's all set to become much colder from this evening.

According to the English weather forecast the temperature is going to drop from 14° during the day today to 9° during the day tomorrow.

I guess being as it is now the 25th of October it is absolutely correct that the temperature should be getting colder now.

Right now I am feeling quite philosophical about winter approaching; I've decided that I'm not going to get worked up about the cold weather.

There is no point in getting upset about it becoming winter and I'm not going to this year, instead I'm going to enjoy it and look forward to spring and summer 2013.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Looking Forward To Friday's Show.



Roberto Matta.

Last night we enjoyed our favourite music program, Later with Jools Holland on BBC2.

It was a great show with Alice Cooper, Charlie Pride, Dionne Warwick, Josephine, Bloc Party, and a new band called ALT’J.

We both thoroughly enjoyed all the acts and are looking forward to seeing the extended programme on Friday night.

This is a wonderful show always full of new acts as well as old favourites and tonight the three favourites were Alice Cooper, Dionne Warwick, and Charlie Pride.

I am looking forward to seeing more from all the acts this Friday at 12.30 at night, it's lovely to have this to look forward to.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Charting The Progression Of My MS.



 
Roberto Matta.

As soon as I woke up I felt the full range of MS sensations, it felt like small electric shocks were happening up and down my body.

While this was happening it also felt like I was on fire, at the same time my arms tightly folded against my torso and my legs were having spasms.

not a pleasant way to wake up but this is what happens just about every day, so while the sensations are still very strange, they have become very familiar.

It is weird feeling these things every day what is even stranger is witnessing the progression of my MS.

Horrible to see how far it has got, sometimes it makes me feel like I'm being squeezed like a tube of toothpaste.

Gradually my body is becoming more paralysed and less able to function.

It is strange to be keeping a log of this happening to me, all I can do is write about how I feel and think about what is happening to me right now.


Monday, October 22, 2012

Food For Thought.



Roberto Matta.

Over the weekend I talked to several friends on the telephone, as a result the conversations have given me a lot to think about.

Thoughts about widely diverging topics, one of which was the idea of campaigning for men who abandon their children to be jailed.

After talking with a friend who mentioned this idea, I thought about it and decided that it reconfirmed for me once again why I was totally opposed to prison changing behaviour.

Prison does not in my opinion stop people from offending, all it does is punish and warehouse offenders, jailing men for not being good fathers is not I think a good idea.

Men contrary to popular belief are not the only ones to leave their children, women also abandon their children, something that does not get mentioned often.

Perhaps community service orders where parents could work on community-based projects as well as parenting courses might be more beneficial than detention in prison.

The other was about an unpleasant incident being able to upset somebody so much that they could become quite prejudiced about the country in which it happened.

I think it is quite understandable that somebody should be wary after something unpleasant happening to them, but not prejudiced against the country.

Even that I can understand happening, especially if depressed, or under pressure, bad experiences can have quite an effect.

There have been times when I have had to have a good think about my reactions usually once I've thought about why it happened I've been able to deal with the situation much better.

The last was about birthdays, and whether or not to celebrate them, apart from a brief period in the 1980s when I was depressed I love celebrating my birthday.

I think it is a lovely thing to do especially because it is an excellent reason to invite close friends, acquaintances as well as new friends to join in.

Years ago I would try and avoid my birthday, then I began to enjoy them again, especially the ones since I met Richie in 1989.

One thing that used to worry me was getting too much attention, it made me feel self-conscious now I realise that I enjoy it very much.

My upbringing was all about being modest, self-effacing and not speaking until spoken to, not asking but waiting, all of which were recommended as virtues.

In the years after leaving home I realised that none of these things were virtues in fact they were as far as I could see the total opposite.

All those so-called virtues are as far as I'm concerned seemed to be just means to curb individuality and freedom of expression.

I'm all in favour of individuality, freedom of expression and enjoying every moment possible, any reason for having a party with friends is good.




Sunday, October 21, 2012

A Typical Autumn Day.



Roberto Matta.


The weather today has been a typical autumn day, overcast sky and pretty gloomy most of the day especially the end of the afternoon.

Our dogs are very happy as Richie took them up to the Amsterdam Forest at lunchtime today is really made their day.

Right now Richie is making us a delicious late meal, it smells delicious and I know that he is making several dishes.

There is going to be a Tempe curry, yard long beans in coconut, dal, basmati rice and Richie freshly made hot chilli pickle which is seasoned with lime juice and fresh coriander leaves.

The cooking aroma is drifting into the bedroom from the kitchen and I can hardly contain my impatience because I want to eat this lovely dinner right now.

It's been an enjoyable day, which is about to get even better with my Darling Richie is wonderful food.

Time now find another piece of artwork by my favourite surrealist artist from Chile Roberto Matta after which I suppose this I look forward to our dinner.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

All that glitters is not gold.


 
Roberto Matta.

Yesterday was a really lovely day which sadly can't be said about today which is a total contrast to sunny Friday.

Both of us are tired today, because we stayed up until the early hours, this is okay once in a while, however we've been doing it too much lately.

The English media have reported that the Jimmy Saville enquiry is now a criminal investigation.

At this moment there are more 200 victims and police are currently investigating suspects who are still alive.

The only name that has been mentioned so far has been that of Gary Glitter, who is reported to have raped a young girl, together with Jimmy Saville.

A thoroughly unsavoury affair which could cause lots of damage to the people who protected Jimmy Saville during his 60 years of abusing young girls.

Horrible to think that this vile individual was given so many honours during his lifetime, it is another example that if you're well connected you can get away with anything.

Hopefully the Jimmy Saville horror story will educate organisations as well as individuals to stop protecting offenders at the cost of everyone else.

I always thought the Jimmy Saville was unpleasantly but I had no idea he was so nasty, it was. Quite a shock to find out that he was such a predator of young women.

Friday, October 19, 2012

All's Well That Ends Well.


 Roberto Matta.
We were very worried about Cyril last night because he could not walk on his right paw and it seemed to be giving him a lot of problems.

Richie called the vets as soon as he could this morning and they gave an appointment for 1200.

Before he left he got me my laptop so I was all set to look at my e-mail, open my blog and write today's blog post.

Just as I opened my e-mail program the laptop screen became black and shortly after the power went off.

I waited for a minute and tried to restart the laptop sadly without success, I tried it several times, then several more times before deciding to stop.

What amazed me was how calm I was about this happening, I think I realised that was little point in getting all worked up and upset when it seemed I could not remedy the situation.

The idea that my laptop was dead is not a nice thought however I decided I would just have to get on and really make an effort to learn how to use the Seetech computer.

I think learning how to use Seetech is not going to be difficult as I thought it would be, last night I decided that I was no longer scared but saw it as a challenge.

It is good that I thought that last night because it made it easier for me when I thought my laptop died, which it hasn't.

As I found out when Richie got back from the vets with Cyril, apparently Richie had forgotten to plug the laptop in to the electricity supply.

That explains everything and now I'm sitting here writing this on my laptop, Richie also reassure me about Cyril.

Apparently he has an infection in one toe which makes walking very painful for the poor little dog; he is now on antibiotics as well as painkillers.

He should get better in a few days so all is well Cyril as well is with my laptop, and all is well with the weather too, it is a beautiful sunny day temperatures of 20° and perhaps higher temperatures mid-afternoon.

It would be great if it got warm enough to use air conditioning which was installed last week on 9th and 10th of October.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Getting away with it.



 

One way or the other it has been quite a week this week; just finally managed to edit three Dutch posts for my blog.

When I had done that as well as answer outstanding e-mails to my case manager as well as my advisor from Amsterdam council’s disability unit, I am tired.

I did not intend to write about paedophiles this week but I could not ignore all the allegations that have been flooding the media in England about Jimmy Saville.

Nor could I ignore the story about the Permanent Secretary to the Justice M Minister Joris Demmink also being a predatory paedophile.

It is amazing that these people get away with such disgusting behaviour because they are high profile and they are being protected by others.

The case of the Permanent Secretary to the Justice Minister it seems to be particularly unsavoury.

Because he's apparently protected by three people who are currently part of the political elite in the Netherlands.

The Justice Minister Opstelten was apparently at the same university and they belong to the same clubs.

It seems that if you're well connected and get away with literally anything as the case of these two men seems to show.






Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Unmask Joris Demmink



Roberto Matta.

Right now in the Netherlands there is a man by the name of Joris Demmink who is the Permanent Secetery to the Minister of Justice.

He is a top servant in the Netherlands who is apparently also a predatory paedophile, one seemingly so well protected that there is no action taken against him.

He is in charge of several ministries such as the Home Office, as well as the Forensics Institute (NFI), the Immigration and Naturalisation service (IND), he is the National Antiterrorism Coordinator which makes him the most powerful man in the Netherlands.

There have been recent attempts to expose him by  journalists in the Netherlands, but they've all been warned off the case.

Today I saw this on Facebook;

Joris Demmink will soon be presented a prestigious government service award by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. Are you kidding me? Tell her that's not ok and that he needs to be arrested here... http://ow.ly/exFWf

My message to the Queen is ;
Please take action now against this predatory paedophile and his network of support.
It is totally unacceptable for anybody to be acting in this manner but for somebody in a top function at the Ministry of Justice to be abusing children is absolutely morally reprehensible.
This should be exposed immediately for what he is and handed over to the police.

Hopefully if enough people send messages to the Queen there will be action taken very soon.

I do not approve of witchhunts and I'm not calling for one what am trying to do is to add my voice to the growing voices demanding action be taken against this paedophile and others in his network.



Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Enjoyable afternoon


 
Roberto Matta.

It was our intention to get to the shower much earlier today, but somehow this did not happen instead we took things very slowly.

This meant that I did not get taken to the bathroom just after lunchtime but later in the afternoon.

We did however have a very pleasant afternoon in each other's company which is always very enjoyable.

We are both looking forward to seeing Later with Jools Holland on BBC2 at 23.00 tonight.

At the end of the extended programme on Friday night, Jools Holland always announces who will be on his show the following week.

I've forgotten who it will be, so I will have to wait patiently until later this evening for that to be revealed to us when we watch the programme.

In the meantime I'm going to keep this short; as soon as I found a piece of artwork by Roberto Matta I will place this on my blog and enjoy the evening with Richie.

Monday, October 15, 2012

The Revelations Keep Coming.



Roberto Matta.

For the last three weeks radio, TV and newspapers in England have been full of revelations about Jimmy Saville a well-known celebrity molesting and raping young girls.

Jimmy Saville died a year ago, before he died there were rumours circulating about him abusing young girls, however there were no allegations against him.

Which was not surprising as he was regarded by many people as something of an untouchable, because of his tireless work fund raising for charities.

Jimmy Saville was well connected; he was friendly with Margaret Thatcher and therefore quite likely also with Rupert Murdoch, the owner of several newspapers who was close to Thatcher.

Two of those papers, The News of the World and The Sun were always exposing paedophiles but surprisingly they never ran any stories about Saville, I wonder why.

The first stories were of Saville molesting girls of 14 who appeared on his program on BBC called; Jim will fix it as well as during his time as a dj at Radio 1.

He also seems to have molested patients at Leeds hospital one of which was brain-damaged, the other had a spinal injury and was also in a wheelchair.

As well vulnerable girls in care homes and girls in an approved school, even inmates at Broadmoor, where he was given an official role on a committee to reorganise the management of Broadmoor.

These stories are all very un-pleasant and what makes it worse is finding out that Saville had been doing this for 60 years.

The first incident occurred in the 1950s, in those years Jimmy Saville ran music halls all over the North of England for the young people.

He was the first person to use two turntables together to produce non-stop music for people to dance to; this introduced mobile discos.

Apparently in 1971 there was an inquest into the suicide of a young dancer on a popular music program Top of the Pops on which Saville often was the presenter.

He was a witness, who was sadly never called to give his evidence or to be questioned; now it seems that this was an opportunity missed.

Maybe if he had been caught back then, all his victims from 1971 until just before his death in 2011 would have been spared.

Right now police speak of 60 victims and more than 340 lines of enquiry and who knows how many more victims of Jimmy Saville may be.

It is a thoroughly unpleasant case which highlights the fact that vulnerable people who should have been protected were abused.

While others who should have been exposed were protected by what seems to be almost a conspiracy of silence that surrounds child abuse.

I think it is time that everyone talks about child sexual abuse maybe that will be the way that we become educated and aware of how widespread it really is.

The Jimmy Saville case has contaminated not only the BBC but also the National Health Service as well as the Ministry of Health.

It shows the need for a change of course for all organisations and institutions, the culture needs to change; they should no longer protect individual offenders as the Catholic Church has done.

Instead they should expose the offenders and hand them over to the police, that way the organisations will be protected not the perpetrators of child sexual abuse.













































































Sunday, October 14, 2012

Looking Forward.



Roberto Matta.

Today has been enjoyable Sunday; we have been having a relaxed time which we both needed.

Not long after I woke up Tina jumped up on my ready to play, she is an adorable dog who loves a game.

I'm glad that she likes me, when Richie brought her back from the dog pound I was worried that it would be difficult to have a relationship with her.

Being as handicapped as I am, this has restricted my interaction with the dogs; I hate not being able to play with them like I used to.

Horrible not been able to sit on the floor and play anymore, it is wonderful that despite this Tina and I are friends.

She is very nice little dog who is smart enough to deal with this for her strange situation, I could not go to her, so she has come to me.

Every morning for the last few months she jumps onto my bed for cuddles as well as games both of which I enjoy.

As I have not got the hand functionality nor the strength I can't play like I used to be able to, so I have to improvise, Tina seems to understand and plays gently with me.

Which is wonderful as Tina plays quite roughly with Richie but not with me, with me she is quite careful as if she knows that I am not well.    

It is now 20.37 outside it is a wet night, Richie is out right now with the dogs is in the Rembrandt Park.

Before he went to the Park Richie made our dinner which he put into the oven to cook, it should be ready when he comes home.

When he is back all he has to do is put the delicious food on the plates for us both, which I'm looking forward to immensely.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Tired But Happy.



 
Roberto Matta.

Thursday night I slept very well so much so that I was quite sleepy when I woke up, which was quite pleasant.

Both Richie and I decided to take it easy and work our way slowly through my exercise routine before going to the bathroom.

We thought that we had plenty of time to do everything and be ready by four o'clock for Andre to come back to do the finishing touches on the air conditioning installation.

Instead just as we were going to go to the bathroom, Andre and his assistant Richard arrived to do the final bits of work.

This delayed us as we could not go to the bathroom until they were finished, which was not as quickly as we had hoped it would be.

Because of this we did not get to the bathroom until gone 16.30 when they finally had completed the air conditioning installation.

So by the time Richie had showered, dried, dressed me and got me sitting in a good position in the bed it was nearly 19.00.

By that time all I wanted to do was get this written down, after which I found in other painting by Roberto Matta.

I decided that as it was 20.00 I would not carry on; instead I saved everything and proceeded to shut down my laptop for the night.

A very good decision which meant that we had a pleasant relaxed evening which concluded with watching our favourite music program Later with Jools Holland on BBC two.

Last night we enjoyed listening to great performances by John Cale, as well as a good band The Vaccines and Beth Hart a good singer, piano player.

It was a very enjoyable way to end what was quite a tiring week for both Richie as well as me; we were both tired but happy.