This was fascinating to read especially as an American. I knew nothing of Mr Reader nor the Scout shows. Any chance you ever saw George Formby or Flanagan & Allen? You may have been too young.
My problem with Remembrance Day is that, consciously or otherwise, it focuses on the wrong thing to remember. Instead of focusing on the evils of war, we choose to commemorate the vainglorious pride of victory; victories that came about because of the largely useless and pointless, not to mention merciless, deaths of millions of innocent people.
I once performed in a Gang Show in Manchester…back when we were innocent and, thankfully, ignorant of owt else! Ha-ha!
Enjoyed this, Michael, thank you. And I discovered this morning that I owe you an apology. Whether by miss-scrolling or by subtler means I cannot presently fathom, I somehow omitted to both
observe and then read a paragraph when you brought to my attention Messrs Rudd and Moncur a couple of months ago. I went back to it for useful trombonerie and discovered to my horror that you’d had a fall and damaged yourself — and I did not mention this in my reply. I am appalled at this negligence and can only say that it was accidental and not callousness and I hope you are fully recovered. Tut.
How are you doing? I know what it is to fall and partly break the fall with my face, and it was not pleasant. But I did not damage my eye. Is it ok? You’re writing up a storm at the moment so I am guessing you’re on the road to betterhood, but it would be good to know. …
It could have been a lot worse. I am thinking Hanif Kureishi who is paralysed from the neck down after a fall. Actually, I did not break the fall partly with my face. My face took the whole brunt. Hemas Hospital did a good job of stitching up the eye – must ask the surgeon if he can run up a pair of trousers for me. Hemas was lacking in that they did not follow up the reason for the fall even though they did ECGs and an Echocardiogram. The Hemas cardiologist seemed quite content that I did not have any blockages.
We took a trip up to Uva province and had lunch with Dr Aloy who had been our GP when we lived there. He greeted me with, “you are looking old, Michael!” Everyone else tells me how young and handsome I am. He is in his 90s. When I told him about the fall he was very concerned and took my pulse and sent me off for another ECG at a hospital in Bandarawela. He insisted that I see a gerontologist and another cardiologist.
I did that and the upshot is that I was fitted with a pacemaker. It has been known for some time that I have heart arrythmia of the bradycardia variety. My heart works too slowly and misses a beat every so often which cuts off the supply of blood to the brain which can result in black outs. I had neve had a blackout or a fainting fit before and had never been an in-patient in a hospital before.
I am writing this up in more detail under the heading of My Inconstant Heart.
This was fascinating to read especially as an American. I knew nothing of Mr Reader nor the Scout shows. Any chance you ever saw George Formby or Flanagan & Allen? You may have been too young.
I only saw them on film. I was watching comedians from a very early age.
My problem with Remembrance Day is that, consciously or otherwise, it focuses on the wrong thing to remember. Instead of focusing on the evils of war, we choose to commemorate the vainglorious pride of victory; victories that came about because of the largely useless and pointless, not to mention merciless, deaths of millions of innocent people.
I once performed in a Gang Show in Manchester…back when we were innocent and, thankfully, ignorant of owt else! Ha-ha!
Lovely piece, Michael!
Scouting for Boys. I never joined that paramilitary organization.
Enjoyed this, Michael, thank you. And I discovered this morning that I owe you an apology. Whether by miss-scrolling or by subtler means I cannot presently fathom, I somehow omitted to both
observe and then read a paragraph when you brought to my attention Messrs Rudd and Moncur a couple of months ago. I went back to it for useful trombonerie and discovered to my horror that you’d had a fall and damaged yourself — and I did not mention this in my reply. I am appalled at this negligence and can only say that it was accidental and not callousness and I hope you are fully recovered. Tut.
How are you doing? I know what it is to fall and partly break the fall with my face, and it was not pleasant. But I did not damage my eye. Is it ok? You’re writing up a storm at the moment so I am guessing you’re on the road to betterhood, but it would be good to know. …
Thanks for your kind comments, Nick.
It could have been a lot worse. I am thinking Hanif Kureishi who is paralysed from the neck down after a fall. Actually, I did not break the fall partly with my face. My face took the whole brunt. Hemas Hospital did a good job of stitching up the eye – must ask the surgeon if he can run up a pair of trousers for me. Hemas was lacking in that they did not follow up the reason for the fall even though they did ECGs and an Echocardiogram. The Hemas cardiologist seemed quite content that I did not have any blockages.
We took a trip up to Uva province and had lunch with Dr Aloy who had been our GP when we lived there. He greeted me with, “you are looking old, Michael!” Everyone else tells me how young and handsome I am. He is in his 90s. When I told him about the fall he was very concerned and took my pulse and sent me off for another ECG at a hospital in Bandarawela. He insisted that I see a gerontologist and another cardiologist.
I did that and the upshot is that I was fitted with a pacemaker. It has been known for some time that I have heart arrythmia of the bradycardia variety. My heart works too slowly and misses a beat every so often which cuts off the supply of blood to the brain which can result in black outs. I had neve had a blackout or a fainting fit before and had never been an in-patient in a hospital before.
I am writing this up in more detail under the heading of My Inconstant Heart.