Friday 4 February 2011

Vehicles

This is from someone who needs to get it out.....

Eventually we got our new(ish) car. a 1998 Renault Megane Scenic. It is a very nice car too and it gets us from A to B.

In the meantime I have had another birthday. Another one where we were unable to go out and celebrate with a meal. Another promise....

I have decided henceforth that my birthday will be the end of May each year. The end of January does not bode well with me. We always have very cold weather and extra expenses (mainly car) and it is too soon after Christmas. So now it will be the end of May, a better time for a party, maybe a barbeque with friends.

I am still feeling rather fragile. I do not sleep well, waking at all hours of the night, I am tense during the day and prone to tears... Oh my God this sounds awful. I know I am not depressed. I did the depression thing after having our daughters and was absolutely 'out-of-it'.

This is different.

Now, when I was very young, around 2 years old, I was hospitalised for life-saving surgery. My earliest memories are hospital beds, disinfectant (I still hate the smell of Dettol), large green and cream hospital wards and nurses in their high hats (then) blue uniforms and starched aprons. I also had a long spell in 'convalescence'. I remember lots of visits to hospitals and to our G.P. Dr. MacArthur (a lovely guy who passed away when I was around 25). My Mum and Dad always said that I was a 'sensitive' child and I think that it stems from my early years and still applies today. My Mum still worries herself silly about my health! I know that if I can turn off outside influences and try to 'meditate' then I will feel better, but it is difficult.

I need to get away from my life and do something different. Do I go to a Catholic retreat in the UK and rediscover the Church or should I go on an alternative retreat and learn to switch off and meditate. I am curious about the oriental option. I have practised Qi Gong and found it very useful but would like to delve deeper. I am sure a residential course would benefit me enormously, but where to go?? Now this is only short term, just to get myself sorted out before I am committed!

Anyway, enough about me..

The car.

He has been driving for almost 50 years now and is used to the internal combustion engine but not to the modern computer driven version.

Oh joy, 1st day with the car and he could not get it to start in the morning....

He thought the worst, I said 'have a look in the manual.' He tried to find the battery to check it was OK. He 'farted' around for about 45 mins before picking up the manual and checking what was wrong...something to do with it being a 'computer' controlled vehicle with electronic locking system. By then I had had a coffee, swept the floors, loaded the washing machine, got really steamed up etc. etc....

He also needed to change the ownership of the car. Slightly different out here to the UK.

We collected the forms and he asked that I fill them.

NO!

Why not..

Suppose I wasn't here?

But you are.

I have dropped dead what would you do?

Get on with it I suppose.

OK, get on with it and stop relying on me....

I'll take it to the Mairie.

C'est tout...

I do love him though!!!

3 comments:

  1. Re the manual...sounds hideously familiar!
    That's the last thing to do, when all else has failed!
    And as to birthdays, if it's good enough for the Queen to have one in the better weather, it's good enough for you!
    But if you get out here at 'real' birthday time next year you can have one birthday here and your official one in France...I've got to keep tempting you out here!

    The tension thing is dreadful....I just wonder if it is having things go out of control despite everything you do to keep a grip.
    Insurance worries, useless estate agents, having to waste money on diagnostics...it does all build up and it is so frustrating to be continually paying out with no control over the results.
    I'm not the meditating type....I read to switch off and go off into the garden where, very often, just doing something mechanical like digging or weeding the atmosphere of calm takes over.
    But everyone has their own ways, I suppose.

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  2. I am reading Susan Howatch at the moment, the Church of England series, Glittering Images again, and will then follow on with the other books. That helps me sleep (just love the C of E scandals). As to gardening, I just wish the weather would pick up! It is so miserable here at the moment although the bulbs are showing their leaves.. Spring is around the corner :-)

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  3. We've just been reading them too!
    And BIL in Australia also started on them about the same time...

    Roll on spring in Europe. It always used to pick me up after a miserable winter that just seemed endless.

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