Bookends

I give thanks for dinner (and pudding!) made for me from the hospital renal cookbook, plus a treatment and exchange of educational reading material and views on the mysteries of life. In my bath afterwards, on the way to an early night, it dawned on me if I'd not had cancer I would probably never have met Rachel and might well have gone my whole life without someone with whom to discuss such interesting stuff as we do, so obviously I give thanks for this curious twist of fate. Last night one topic was common attribution bias as described by Dean Burnett. We'd both observed the process in action putting it down to specific individual's behaviour, and didn't realise it was a recognised psychological mechanism rooted in the self-preservation processes of the brain.

I give thanks for some good sleep between the many wakings up and one excellent dream I wish I could have stayed in. I was tired this morning so I give thanks for a long lie in and getting a few bits of this and that done before I got tired again.

I give thanks for a Tesco delivery, and that I've not met that driver before. Who knows, with a fair wind I might not again! I heard him arrive and went down the stairs but when I greeted him at the door he said. 'It says here I'm supposed to ring you' Through a somewhat forced smile I explained he didn't need to as I was here. I can't anyway, he said, do you know your mobile goes through to the grocery delivery service helpline? I confirmed the number for him and assured him it did not. Yes it does he said and dialled it so I could listen to 'You have reached the Tesco mobile messaging service for etc etc' No longer even smiling a bit, I explained the difference between Tesco mobile service and Tesco grocery shopping. Then with much huffing and puffing he brought the boxes upstairs. I apologised for the number of flights and for not being able to assist. Oh, its not the stairs that bother me he said, I'm fine with stairs, I can go up and down them all day, it's weights I have a problem with. I apologised again (Why? It's clear he's in the wrong job!) and said, quite truthfully, that I try to spread out the heavier things between orders. Honestly - food for one with one, two pints of milk, a single can of fruit and zero bottles of wine or beer - as deliveries go it can't be that bad surely? It's the water he said, feel that...offering me the tray containging, amongst other things, two 1.5 litre plastic bottles of water. No really, I said I'm not supposed to do any heavy lifting, that's why I appreciate these deliveries so much. Couldn't you get a carer to do it, he suggested, other people their carers do it. What? Carry the groceries for him? The man is extremely lucky I cannot lift lumpen things or he'd have gone the quick way down to his van via the window!

And relax! I give thanks for remembering Simon and Garfunkel's enchanting Bookends.