Happy Memories.

 Roberto Matta.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Matta 

Today is another unpredictable day, 1 minute it looks pleasant, the very next there is torrential rain, it is just like April and not like August.                                                         

Global warming is really starting to have an impact now, as all our seasons are turned around, summer in spring and autumn in the summer.

Again I slept really well last night; I even managed to sleep through until midday today, something I have not done in years.

That means that I'm late going to the shower, toilet but no worries as it is nice to have a lazy day on Sunday.

It reminds me of Sundays before I had MS, when I loved a lazy morning, lying in bed, drinking tea smoking joints and talking to Richie.

Pleasant memories of happy days, we had at that time a lovely Staffordshire terrier cross called Daisy.

She liked joining us in the bedroom; she would on command get her bed as well as her blanket, the bed she would put by the radiator and the blanket in bed for her to snuggle under.

Daisy was very clever like that; she also knew how to put her toys away at the end of the day which no other dog we have had since can't do.

Our trio of beautiful dogs, Marleen, Cyril and Tina get on very well together and make a wonderful happy pack.

What is really brilliant is seeing how happy and confident Cyril has become; his confidence has grown tremendously since the beginning of the year.

Finally he has been able to be a dog, something it seems he was not allowed to do in his old home, horrible to think of an active dog like Cyril being deprived of exercise.

 I'm so glad we took him in January 2011; it has been quite a challenge trying to win his trust, now one year and seven months later we have a lovely dog.

Re-homing dogs is very worthwhile thing to do especially because it means avoiding buying dogs from puppy farms, something we do not agree with. 

Finally the rain has stopped and the weather has improved, at precisely 20.00 this evening the sun came out and the sky is blue now.

Richie is making us a delicious dinner which I am looking forward to, after we have eaten or look for artwork and put this on my blog, happy days.

Something To Look Forward To..

Oscar Dominguez

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Dom%C3%ADnguez

Amazingly the sun came out after lunch and it's been a sunny afternoon with big fluffy clouds drifting by, they are now getting denser as well as dark.

So for once the whole afternoon has been pleasant, the kids playing on the play area opposite certainly sound like they're enjoying it very much.

Hopefully Richie and the dogs will be back from the park before the dark ominous clouds start to shower us with torrential rain as it did night before last.

It has been a really bad summer over here, very worrying for farmers as well as people’s allotments and vegetable/fruit and flower gardens.

Global warming does not mean long warm summers; instead it seems to mean intolerable heat waves for some, while for others like in Northern Europe now it means cool, wet weather, not summer weather.

Recently I've needed a lot more adjustments of my position in bed as well as in the shower chair, some days it feels like I'm constantly needing Richie's help.

But every now and again, like right now I'm sitting reasonably well a whole hour after Richie last adjusted my position, I am slightly leaning to the left but I can keep dictating without any problem.

The Dragon voice recognition software is good, although it can be quite frustrating at times when it writes something I did not say.

When the dogs start barking I have to try to switch the microphone off quickly otherwise I get sentences of either gobbledygook or just a series of are.

Often a whole sentence will appear that I never once mentioned, just now there were two sentences full of random words.

One thing I've noticed is that the speech recognition software does not recognise swear words so if I want to use them I have to enter them into the vocabulary.

I've entered quite a few names, strangely there are few that don't get recognised even after I've enter them into the vocabulary.

I was phoned by somebody from RTD Het Dorp, who wanted to make an appointment for them to bring me the Seetech computer.

When I received the phone call Richie was massaging and exercising my arms and legs, I was asked whether it would be better for the caller to try later on.

This was an excellent suggestion sadly she did not call me back at the agreed time nor did she send me an e-mail as she said she would do if she could not call me.

Hopefully I will get an appointment on Monday for the equipment to be brought round as soon as possible; I am looking forward to learning how to use Seetech.

Keep A Balance.

Jan Toorop 

http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/jan-toorop

Since Wednesday the days were really difficult for me because it was such shocking news about the air conditioning that it got me quite depressed.

Which is not how I want to be, especially as depression is one of the side-effects of Multiple Sclerosis.

I'm sure that depression can cause a lot of damage; something that I want to avoid is much as I can, for a brief period the news totally demoralised me.

Somehow I will have to try to keep a balance and not get too involved with fighting for my rights, but on the hand I don't intend to give up any time soon.

The whole way this is being handled just shows what the Amsterdam Council thinks of my application for air conditioning, they seem to think it is a frivolous request.

Of course it is not frivolous it is a vital necessity, Wednesdays heat wave confirmed once again why I needed it.

If I didn't get physically sick and unable to function due to the heat I would not want air conditioning.

In my opinion air conditioning is one of the contributors to global warming and the destruction of our weather systems.

My earliest memory of air conditioning was in the 50s in Trinidad, when an American school friend took a little group of us to her house.

I remember thinking that her house felt like a deep freeze which I did not like; I also recall being offered strange cheese sandwiches.

It was cheese like I've never seen nor eaten before; bright orange cheese spread in a jar, the other option was hot dogs, also orange.

I remember tentatively trying both but I could not manage to eat them, I was very glad to get home to a delicious curry.

The only other time I've experienced air conditioning was in 1997 when I visited Trinidad for the first time since 1962 when we had left.

The other thing I never thought I'd be using here in Amsterdam is mosquito nets, which we both have so that we can get a good nights sleep.

That is much better than swatting mosquitoes all night which is something that we had to do, especially in the last 10 years.

Today I feel a lot better especially as yesterday and today it has been cooler which is made my life a lot easier.

My intention now is to relax as much as I can and enjoy the weekend with my Darling Richie and our three delightful dogs.