Back - at last!

Well, I'd better get this blog updated! I'm having gentle nudges from friends to remind me!

To be honest - it's been a difficult month. No matter, we're now into early June and things are looking up - including the weather! The last week has given us some of the loveliest weather I've seen for ages. It's been really hot and sunny - and lucky me, I've managed to see some of it, while poor Susie is working all the hours of the day and right into the evening. I hope this coming weekend is good again.

So, what's been happening? Well, I've been back at work a couple of weeks now after my episode of illness as described in the previous post. If I'm honest, I probably went back a little early as my son pointed out to me. I have been very, very tired and have slept some evenings for one to two hours before going to bed for the night! My son got permission to come home a little early from Iraq to help out at home when I was ill. They are 'closing down' Iraq anyway, as far as the British army is concerned and they shunted him out early when they heard that his poor ol' dad was in a bit of a state! He was a great help here. He brought me endless cups of tea in bed and prepared food for us (he's turned into a budding chef). When I was a bit better he drove me to doctors and chemists and eventually, for coffee and a short walk (um, from the car to the coffee shop). He gave us very practical help and Susie and I really appreciated that. In the first few days before he got home (when I was stuck upstairs in bed), dear friends from the Church dropped in and made me lunch and stayed to chat for a while. A great big thanks to you - you know who you are. Even the builders were really kind to me and made sure I was ok. Bless them.

One funny thing to come out of all of this is that I can't remember much about the first week of illness. I am reminded that I spoke to various people on the phone and some visitors who came. I have almost no recollection of this. If I said anything unusual or out of character (oh dear - the mind boggles) - I'm really sorry - I had a temperature of nearly 40C and those few days are all a blur! Happily, things are a lot better now.

Update:

The occupational therapist came today to check that the work done in the house is satisfactory. She was really delighted and took a couple of mobile phone pics to show her colleagues. She also asked me how the builders were - and I told her that I couldn't fault them - that I could only speak really highly of them. If anyone is reasonably local and need a builder - then I can recommend a good one - just contact me. Basically, I'm fine. Just tired. I've decided to give up dental practice at the end of June as it's too tiring. It's not the work that's hard, but all the travelling and the time it takes getting there and back. I'll miss it - I've always been a 'hands-on' dentist - and although I'm keeping on the teaching, I'll really miss 'being a dentist' - if you can follow that!

Other news: One of my jobs at the University is to organise visits from foreign students to the dental school. The last four weeks a young lady from Saveetha Dental Institute in Chennai has been visiting us. I've had less teaching commitments that usual so I've been able to show her some of the sights around Glasgow. Here's a photo I took during a short stop at the quadrangles at Glasgow University.