A few more comments from the sickbed

Considering that we mostly spent the last week in bed, or at least inside the flat, there is not much I can write about.  By Monday Roy was down with the lurgy too and since then I found that this time he is recovering a lot slower than me.  Perhaps the fact that he only ever catches something once every 10 years, doesn'thelp. His cough is tighter and is much slower to loosen up than mine.  But let's get back to the beginning!

Monday Laci came with the  goat cheese, which is actually quite a saga. An orienteering friend and his wife make gorgeous goat cheese and about a year or so ago I started buying it in chunks of between 1 and 2 kilos.  About a third or a quarter usually goes to Nelly, the rest to us.  It takes me a few months to eat it, (Roy sticks with his Cheddar!), which is due to its denseness and its flavour.  A sliver provides plenty of zing for a sandwich. My friends are excellent at making the stuff, just not so good on the logistics of how to get it to me.  We even had to go and drive all the way to their house in the North once, as they seemed unable to organise something as simple as that.  This time, however, I got really pissed off when having rang especially and asked if they were coming to a particular orienteering event, they answered in the negative, and then he turned up with lots of cheese to sell, except mine. Also, quite by accident I discovered in a nearby market a cheese stall, which was selling hard goat's cheese just as good as theirs and a lot cheaper. So, now there is an alternative, and while I would still carry on buying theirs out of loyalty, but not if they cock up the delivery system every single time.  Anyway, after the last O event where I was watching everybody disappearing with big chunks of cheese with mine not available, I was happy to buy the stuff from the market and ignoring them, when eventually they went to some event where I couldn't, due to a concert and anyway I was sick by then, and took my cheese there. It  was passed to somebody who then brought it to me.  So, this is how Laci turned up with a kilo and a half of goat's cheese on Monday.

The Music Academy

Tuesday and Wednesday was spent indoors, me mostly in bed, Roy on the computer, but by Thursday there was a need to go out for a variety of reasons. Having recovered much more than poor old Roy, I ventured out.  I wrapped myself up in my puffy down jacket, big scarf and new Nepalese owl hat and walked the following round:
1. photocopy shop to take copy of my mammography report for doctor;
2. doctor's surgery which was chock a block full of coughing and spluttering patients, so the epidemic is still raging, obviously. I had to wait about three quarters of an hour, but once I got in she was very smily and efficient. (Makes a pleasant change!!) I gave her the copy of the mammography report with pictures, told her about the lurgy and got prescriptions for both lurgy and the next 3 months worth of  blood pressure and heart meds.
3. pharmacy, where I got the meds prescribed, but forgot to get the vitamin C.
4. Music Academy: picked up the tickets I bought for Bozsa and myself on line for next spring/summer.
5. tried to buy my sourdough bread at the bakery, but they sold out yet again;
6. went to SPA to do some food shopping and
7. to the greengrocers to get fruit, veg and nuts.

This was the first longer trip I had out since the lurgy started and while I managed it quite OK, by the time I got home I was done in, like I did 15 miles on the hills. Methinks this lurgy will be a bugger to shift, just like the one last year!! :-(

Steven Isserlis

And then came Friday, when I tried to rest all day, so that I would be up to going to the Music Academy for a concert, which I was looking forward to for a long time.  I have heard about Steven Isserlis a lot, but never yet had the chance to see him in the flesh. I listened to him playing his glorious Stadivarius chello on YouTube a lot, but sitting a few meters from him I was hoping would enhance the already good impression I had.  Well, it was an absolutely magical performance, living up to all my expectations and more.  It is not only his beautiful instrument and his inspired, insightful and brilliant playing, it was the whole bloke that really had such an effect on me. His smile and enthusiasm is infectious.  You can tell he loves and enjoys playing and that he puts his heart and soul into it.

Dénes Várjon

He was sharing the podium with Dénes Várjon, a brilliant pianist, whom he had actually met way back in the 1980's when Várjon was still a student attending one of his master classes in Cornwall. The program was fascinating, a perfect mixture of traditional (Schumann and Beethoven) and some lesser known and played, but excellent pieces from Bloch, Kurtág and Foure. He unashamedly promotes romantic music, pushing those pieces that had the misfortune to go out of fashion in their own time when they are good and worthwhile pieces to perform.  Bozsa and I stayed for the interview/discussion with them after the concert, when Isserlis had displayed his personality traits even further.  What a lovely man as well as a superb performer!!

On Saturday we decided not to go to Maggie and Jerry's Christmas party as Roy definitely did not feel up to it and while I could have gone just for a couple of hours, I stayed at home out of solidarity and fear of picking up a follow-up infection.

The plans currently are that we will go down to the village on Tuesday, should we both feel up to it. Not Monday because according to Nelly there is a scheduled all day power cut on Tuesday, so there is no point in sitting in th dark without computers. As the bus doesn't get there until 3.45pm, by which time we are promised a return of the service, we chose Tuesday.