It’s snowing!!

Hi all

Just a quick one today – mainly because I’m back at the hospital tomorrow to have my heart checked out and confirm (or not!) if I’m safe enough to slice open for my new prosthetic shoulder.  I’ll write later in the week about how that went on but let’s hope that my pacemaker is still working OK.

We were watching Countryfile last night (for my money one of the best shows on terrestrial tele in the UK) and saw what the weather had in store for you all back in the UK.  Countryfile also gives us an idea of what to expect here in France and I thought we were going to be under some warm air from Africa for a couple of days but heh-ho, wrong again, we woke up to snow and it hasn’t stopped all day. 

  The view from the kitchen window

It is decidedly colder as well so it looks like this will be with us for a while.  Fortunately our little commune has a great Maire and he has arranged for our drive to be included in the snowplough route – so no more getting snowed in.   Getting snowed in was a real problem in the winters – the house is on the side of a hill and the drive down from the road is quite steep, so getting anything other than a 4×4 up it is difficult.  We haven’t got a 4×4 and it has to be as clear as possible for my nurses so the offer to have it cleared for us was too good to miss. The commune employs a man to do all the odd jobs – keeping our drive clear of snow, the verges tidy, hedges cut, ditches by the side of the road clear, things like that – and our man is Benoit.  He and his father – Monsieur Gauthier – have got a carpentry business in the village and they made us our new window frames a couple of years ago – oak frames, double glazed and looking exactly like the originals from 1923 when the house was built.  We do what we can to maintain the character of the house – it was a big part of the initial attraction and uPVC really doesn’t cut it for us even though it would have been cheaper getting the white plastic windows from the UK – but there are a few English owned houses around and about that have had the ubiquitous monstrosities installed.

Benoit will have to be up and about early tomorrow if we are to have a chance of being on time  as we’ll have to leave here no later than 08:00 to get there in good time for the 09:00 appointment.  The appointment should be easy enough – the cardiologue will just drape a circular sensor over my chest and that will interrogate the pacemaker device wirelessly.  The sensor is connected to a briefcase sized box-of-tricks and the results are displayed on a screen.  Any tweaks to the pacemaker can be done using the electronics and it’s all non-invasive.  Very clever really but then it got me thinking – the box-of-tricks is basically a lap-top in disguise running a piece of software but I’ll guess at a much inflated price to the customer – the hospital.  I know a bespoke machine will come with all sorts of testing schedules and support guarantees, although built in to the purchase costs or PFI contract, but surely a clued-up IT Department could ensure the reliability of a lap-top and keep the software up-to-date?  Oh all right, maybe not given the ransomware scandal  last year, but I think even the NHS has twigged that Windows XP isn’t fit for purpose anymore.

OK, time to go.  Wish me luck for tomorrow, or not, dependent on how bad a day you’ve had.  There’s a part of me hoping all will be fine and I’ll be good to get the operation and then there’s another part of me that’s wondering if all the time, effort and expense will be worth it!  In truth I’ve got no choice as I owe it to Karen to do everything I can to make our life here as easy as possible.  Given what I’ve survived to date a few weeks discomfort following the surgery wont be too hard to handle – assuming I wake up from the anaesthetic LOL.

TTFN mes amis.  Jem