Alec Reeves archive
David Robertson arrived today to collect my Alec Reeves archives. He had a very enthusiastic meeting with Mary. Alec was the man who first invented the digital age, OBOE: a wartime bomber navigation system, and a ruthless pursuer of psychic phenomena which might enable him to communicate with an afterlife, but digitally. He was certainly the most “Wacky” guy at the Harlow Labs. David is writing a book on the Digital Age.
Good to see the first of the archive material being disseminated. Next will be the Science Museum collection. A few treasures there, especially when we include all the physical artefacts.
Exhausting day.
Houdini experience.
Confused by the previous night’s “Ground Hog” days experience, (Multiple experience’s of the same actual sleep/awake period) I arose with an agenda to find a “solution”. I tried fastening a loop of rope around the end of the mattress!
Unfortunately during the night this loop somehow became very tight around my toe, and I ended up dangling in a noose, struggling to get free! I felt like Houdini trying to escape from a straight jacket.
Eventually I managed to get free, and make my way further up the bed, to ponder just how on earth I managed to get into such a mess!
Now I’m thinking could the solution be to use a single duvet, to avoid the excess weight of the double duvet hanging over the side(s).
A single duvet made a huge difference.
Busy busy
Incredibly busy few days. Dougal and Kelly visited, then visits by District Nurses, Occupational Therapist, Lucia from Ireland. Running out of pills, so needed to reorder fast!
Paul’s visiting day today.
Much progress on emailing the Artefacts spreadsheet to the Science Museum. (Final step tomorrow).
Exhausted!
Woke this morning feeling extremely tired and weak. Reluctantly cancelled my regular exercise class at St. Isabel Hospice at Welwyn. Took myself to my new electric bed, and slept until 10 pm!
Hoping this is a temporary phenomenon.
Electric bed arrives!
I now have an elecric (hospital) bed), which goes up and down, etc at the touch of the control’s. Taķes a bit of getting used to, but I’m learning.
It’s Curtains for Richard
Huge thanks to Ian and Lavinia for fitting curtains between my main room and the conservatories.
My knotted rope
As many of you now are aware, I am surprised and delighted to still be here. For example, I never expected to be sufficiently fit or mobile to attend our annual Lab reunion just two weeks ago.
So I am now daring to imagine dates in the more distant future, as targets in my survival plan (Lavinias birthday 12/12/44, Christmas, New Year, the annual Christmas Curry event later in January, and some interesting Cambridge event during the first week in February).
I visualise each as knots on my rope, focusing on the next one alone, but hoping for more. One step at at a time!
Sister act
These last few days my lovely two sisters have been looking after me while my dear wife Lavinia has had a bit of R&R in Cornwall (Son’s 40th birthday) and a concert in Bristol.
Great to spend time with them and reminisce around childhood memories. Dispatched back up North on the train this morning.
Antibiotics
Having struggled with a painful Eustachian tube/pharyngitis all last week, I finally got to see a nurse at the surgery in the hope getting some antibiotics.
Unfortunately the nurse insisted that it was Viral in her enthusiasm for preserving the global effectiveness of antibiotics. Fortunately Lavinia convinced the rotor to give me a pack of antibiotics just in case (nominally to treat my infected fingers), assisted by my briefly breaking down with sheer frustration at the nurse’s intransigence!
So last night in desperation I finally began to take the antibiotics, and Voila! I feel great today! So my hunch was correct. It’s a lovely day out there, feeling so blessed again.