Great Fun.

Party Pictures.


The party was really good yesterday, seven friends joined Richie Gareth, Paul and I for a very enjoyable time last night.

Richie’s food was delicious and the tabboleh, potato salad and green salad complimented the quiches excellently, as did the chutney and pickled onions.

The German chocolate biscuits Katrin brought us last Saturday went down a treat as did Richie’s cupcakes.

We have a lot of proseccio left so Richie has suggested we have another party soon,
maybe nice when Marianne is back from holiday and Anja, Willes can be here too.

I had been feeling self conscious before the party but last night when our friends were here I had no more worries.

I was very clearly just myself Herrad and my handicap was of no importance. It was not a topic of conversation as we had plenty of other things to talk about and we did.

Two friends Lin and Eva helped me to eat as my hands we were .very cramped so could not pick up my quiche slices.

Richie that he enjoyed the fact he could sit and enjoy and not have to wait to eat after helping me to eat.

It was great fun so much so we went on for an hour longer than planned until midnight, had a catheter problem at 22.45 which took a couple of minutes to resolve.

Then we rejoined the party and decided that we were having such fun to carry on for another hour.

Having Gareth and Paul staying for three days has been wonderful gave us both a tremendous boost.

So nice to spend time with good friends, one good friend, Grainne was here last night who we do not see often as she has a hectic schedule.

Another friend Eva joined us, who we had not seen for five years, felt like yesterday that I last saw her as we slipped easily into chatting and laughing.

All in all a successful party and something we intend to do again very soon look forward to the next party.

Sunny Days.

Purple Auroras, Sept. 8th over Bø, Norway.


Today has started off sunny with blue skies which are so amazing seeing as yesterday was so cool and grey and rainy and downright miserable.

It got dark really early, the lights in the stairs and on the galleries in our building went on just after 18.00 and I noticed cars too had their headlamps on early.

Our dogs were miserable yesterday as they do not like rain, unless they get to go to the park but yesterday it was a rainstorm not a gentle rain shower.

Today all of us, including the dogs are cheerful because of sunshine, spoke to Gareth just now; he and Paul will be here at 16.00 this afternoon.

Happy to see them this afternoon, be really good to have them staying here for a few days, it’s a nice thing to do.

Makes life feel normal like before the MS, think I will be abit self conscious about eating with other people present as that is becoming increasingly difficult for me to do.

My right arm can’t stretch out like it could, can not straighten out my elbow out which makes it difficult to get food to my mouth.

Have been coming to terms with this, when I can’t carry on Richie helps me and feeds me, not something I like but on a purely practical level when I need help to eat I will ask for it.

As this has been happening more and more I have been able to accept that it is happening, hope that I will be ok with eating on Friday.

8 friends will be coming here for our little party, Richie is going to be making quiches, bread rolls, humus, and guacamole, bowls of spicy Tempe and Tofu cubes and potato crisps.

He will also make small individual cakes which he plans to ice and we have several packets of fancy German biscuits which Katrin brought us last Saturday.

Friends will be bringing potato salad, green salad, tabboleh, macaroni salad and fruit salad as well as nibbles like nuts and raisins, dates and olives.

Looking forward to Friday immensely, be good to see a lot of friends all together and good for me as I come to terms with the effects of MS and no longer want to hide this from our friends.

No need to as it does not detract from who I am and my friendships.