Write words

Watched an episode of Stephen Fry’s Planet word yesterday when he was looking at swearing and taboo words. He took part in a rather unscientific experiment based on the premise that swearing helps you deal with pain. You’ll have conducted your own research at some time in your lives I’m sure, especially if you’ve ever used tools! The person organising the TV experiment said was prompted to pursue his line of investigation after apologising to the midwifery team for his wife’s bad language during childbirth and them telling him it was quite normal in the circumstances. I thought of this this morning when my vocabulary seemed to be composed mainly of shorter words with exclamation marks after them. Sometimes it feels as if someone is poking around in my kidney with a pointy thing...and as I’ve had that done while conscious this is not a simile or a metaphor or an analogy or any other kind of grammatical term for a comparison but a statement of fact! So first of all today I give thanks for the fact that I’m not a person who swears a great deal as apparently this lessens profanity’s efficacy as an analgesic.

I give thanks that I’m up and about though not actually dressed yet. Oftentimes if I’m able to at all I find trying to get on with things rather than lying around thinking about pains is a good policy. Yesterday I didn’t actually hurt as much so I did less. This may seem cack-handed to you but we all have to find our own way of dealing with things.

I’m also grateful that I’ve managed to get a letter to Kostas written, printed and ready to post. It’s well over a week since I heard from him and I know he worries if he doesn’t hear from me as who would tell him if something was wrong? It’s in my executor’s instructions that Helen Barker from Human Writes should get a message to him if I can’t but my executors are two of the people who I don’t hear from for a while and it just doesn’t seem right to be badgering them about their future duties if they are already acting if I’m not here. So...as you may have already spotted I’ve mentioned Helen Barker from Human Writes here too in case any of you hear that anything has happened to me that causes my correspondence to end.

I hope Lynn’s having a good trip away in all senses of the word and that my remaining readers are coping with their own pointy sticks as well as they can. Special warm thoughts to Carole and her family and loved ones.