Friendship And Support.

James Ensor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ensor

Yesterday was a good day, really enjoyed seeing Antje in the afternoon, so glad that Richie had found my disabled parking permit on Tuesday night.

Meant that Antje could park right outside for nothing which is good, otherwise it is approximately 3 euro’s per hour.

She was here for 3 hours which would have cost Antje 9 euro’s for her visit to us, real relief when Richie found it between some old letters.

While Antje was here another friend, Eva came by, which was a pleasant surprise as people generally do not pop by spontaneously.

Everyone here makes appointments, these days they are easier to cope with as we do need to know when I need to be ready by.

In England, I was more used to friends popping by and surprising me, nowadays life is sadly more organised, guess it has to be with MS.

Need to let friends here know that we really would appreciate seeing them lots more, more visitors is  best, as it is not good for either of us to get too isolated.

Easy enough to do especially as we do enjoy each others company so very much, that it is easy enough to forget to organise visitors.

This was no problem when we were both working and seeing plenty of people during the day, plus we could go out in the evenings.

Life has changed so much these days having MS, that I really need to remember that in order for life to be ‘spontaneous’ I have to get organised.

First step is to let our friends know they are very welcome here and we love and appreciate their friendship and support.

 

Our Love For Each Other Is Stronger And Brighter Than Ever.

The salmon fisher. By Eilif Peterssen (1852–1928)


Got good supportive feedback about yesterdays post, the feedback and support that I get as a result of my blog is really wonderful.

I have met so many good people through the blog world and been given such a lot of friendship and support by them.

Getting and giving support is so very important for us all, I am glad that I too can give support to others.

Important for me to feel part of it all and to be able to offer friendship and support to other people too.

Friendship and support creates bonds between people and that is of crucial importance for us all right now.

Especially when faced with something as difficult as an incurable disease or anything that ‘cripples’ you and stops you from living your life as you used to.

Having Primary Progressive MS has totally changed my life and Richie’s life, how we are living now is so different now.

The salmon fisher. By Eilif Peterssen (1852–1928)


Being able to talk freely about anything with Richie really helps me to cope with my MS and it also helps me to stop being anxious, panicking, worrying, getting fearful and even helps me cope with getting depressed.

It is very difficult dealing with the fast progression of my MS, it is very difficult to cope with, and luckily for me I have Richie helping me.

His love and support make everything easier and better, it is so good to have him close by, Richie is absolutely invaluable to me.

It is great to see and feel that this dreadful disease has only made our love for each other stronger and brighter than ever.

Friends Make The Sun Shine Brighter.

Paul Cezanne.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_C%C3%A9zanne

Had a very social afternoon today, first John who I met at the end of 2006 at the Rehabilitation Clinic Amsterdam came to visit

Really nice to see him again, Skype is good, a really excellent way to talk, but not the same as a real visit.

Was good to catch up with each other and to see how well he looked, he was telling us how positive he was these days.

Apparently his friends say he has never been as positive as he is now, it makes sense to me, he too feels he has been given extra time.

Only sad thing was that the mobility bus made him wait for an hour and a half outside the house, next time hope he will insist on waiting inside.

Nur came back from his job search just before John left and told us that he had a job offer, good news especially as he only got here jet lagged on 3 June.

Sad news it is a job in the UK, had hoped he would be here for awhile and maybe find somewhere close by to live.

He should be flying off to England next week Friday, as far as we are concerned that is far too soon.

Nur is such a good friend, it is a real pleasure to have him here, it is no problem at all, and when we met at Euronet we hit it off right away.

Richie and Nur hit it off too, when we invited him home for dinner, think it must be the same sense of humour.

Around 7 pm the door bell rang and another friend of ours Darren, turned up with a gorgeous big bunch of pink flowers.

Beautiful roses and lilies and dahlias all pretty pink and the roses unusually have a great scent.

Plus Darren brought a small sunflower plant, with one pretty yellow flower open and 4 to 5 buds yet to.

It was really good to see Darren again, nice to see that he looked so well and sounded so happy.

Looking forward to seeing him again soon when he is back from visiting his family next week, hopefully with his new bloke.

Very much enjoyed this afternoon lovely to see friends made the sun shine brighter today.

Katrin and Me.

Katrin's visit was brilliant yesterday really good, no matter how long since we last saw each other we always click straight away.

Yesterday we started talking as soon as she was here at 12.30 until 5.30 when she had to rush to catch her 6 pm train.

As usual afterwards I realised that most of what I had meant to talk about did not get talked about.

But that is how conversation goes, they take on dynamism of its own, one minute you are talking about the present and then you refer to the past.

It is like a sort of ping pong between the people participating; yesterday we talked about so many things.

It is brilliant to be so in tune with someone, and yet we are so different too, we have had such different lives.

Different upbringings and different circumstances, she has had opportunities that I have never had, and I have had experiences she will never have and vice versa and yet all those differences did not stop us from becoming good friends when we were little children.

We have not even seen each other that often, she is 60 and I am 58 now.
In all we have seen each other perhaps on 10 occasions.

We met for the first time in 1955, we stayed for a 2 weeks in their home in Koln, Germany, then again in 1958 again for 2 weeks, then in 1962 for a few days again in Koln, this would be the last visit to their house in Koln.

The year after they moved to Scharbeutz, a lovely town on the Baltic Sea coast.

The next time we saw each other Katrin, visited us in Reading, England for a couple of weeks in early summer 1966 and I had the great pleasure of going home back with her for the last month of the summer holidays to Scharbeutz.

A magical place, especially because it got me away from the constant arguments and the clostrophic supervision of my mother.

It was an excellent holiday, right by the beach, with my favourite cousin and sea and sand and best of all they had a dinghy which we took out quite often.

The holiday was good for me it enabled me to be myself and to be able to express myself.

Nice to be treated as an adult at age 15 and not made to feel a stupid kid like I was a t home.

I visited again for the entire summer holidays in 1967, we were living in Bonn, Germany and I was allowed to go alone on the train from Bonn to Hamburg where Katrin would meet me and take me on a local train to her home.

A great holiday, Katrin’s class went to Copenhagen and they could take one person extra and I could go with them.

We sailed on a night boat; I stayed up on deck watching the moonlight on the waves and the moon and stars.

Great trip even had my first kiss with the nicest and best looking boy in the class, he was a gentleman, and it has stayed with me as a sweet memory.

It was a wonderful unforgettable holiday.

Then I did not see Katrin again until 1979 in Paris for a weekend, was nervous how it would go but as soon as we met it felt good between us.

12 years in between had not diminished our feelings and friendship for each other and we had a delightful time.

I met her partner and 2 year old daughter and they me my then boyfriend and we had a good weekend.

As often happens things always intervened and the next time we saw each was in 2001 again for a weekend in Paris to celebrate my 50 birthday.

I am very happy that since I have been in bed last year Katrin’s has been able to get here more often, she visited twice, one over night stay and the second time for 5 hours and again yesterday for 5 hours wonderful hours.

It is brilliant that 54 years after meeting at age 4 and 6 we sill love each other and are still great friends at the ages of 58, me and 60, Katrin.

Time changes many things but has not changed our friendship.

Here's to life.

Not such a nice day as yesterday today it’s grey and raining, well drizzle hours of drizzle.

Not an inspiring day not like yesterday but it is a day for doing things just a shame no sun.

Yesterday was pretty upset that Ton, the nurse did not have a good report about the sore, he measures it every time.

Was so hoping for that special birthday present for coming Tuesday just have to get off it now and pick myself back up again.

No point crying before I need to cry but it did knock me for six yesterday will have to be patient and wait which I find so very difficult to do.

Oh well perhaps its good news next time Ton visits let’s hope so and in the meantime I am going to enjoy today sun or no sun.

First I have my fysio session where I will do lots of arm exercises and then Mathilde moves and massages my arms.

After the fysio session Anne and Cecile will visit, Cecile will bring a bottle of prosecco left over from her birthday party.

We will drink a toast to life and friendship.

Good friends and neighbours.

Our good friends and neigfhbours are priceless they give us so much support and love and understanding.

Which is excellent and stops us getting too isolated and sad.

Have to remember to ask people to come by as do sometimes forget and wonder why there are no visitors.

We are all brilliant people but not such good mind readers, so need to communicate that it is nice to have visitors.

Oh well as with everything onwards and upwards.

Here's to good friends.

Have been abit down recently and thought it important that I talk about it.

Posted on my blogs yesterday that I have realised once again that it is important for me to communicate how I feel and what is happening to me.

Better than keeping it all to myself and consequently not sleeping well.

Posting yesterday was a real relief and last night I slept really well, actually went to sleep minutes after Richie put the light out

Somehow got it into my head that to talk about how I am alot would be a burden on my friends and from there started to always respond by saying I am ok when asked how I am.

Sometimes it is a good day and I am ok but mostly I am not ok just got being optimistic and ok mixed up.

Really didn't and don't want MS,conditionto be a burden on others but finally accept that to keep stuff to myself is more of a burden.

Aware that my condition is getting worse, lying in bed has weakened the muscles in my back so when I sit in the shower chair I start to slump forward very quickly.

My arms are getting very painful and have pain in most of my body now get painful tingles which wash up and down all the time.

Keep telling myself that it's just the MS sending mixed signals and not real pain but does not really work as I still am in lots of pain.