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Oh dear, I knew there was a reason why I should be home alone and not home with underemployed Husband: apparently, rather than listening to Radio 4 all day it may be better to listen to the cricket…
I have listened to Radio 4 for years. It is the backdrop to my life – both hearing the programmes and knowing the schedule mean that I am informed, entertained and amused at the same time as having a feel for the hour just by hearing what’s on. It isn’t just me, the whole family has been listening to it whether they chose to or not. They have all taken an interest in the 6.30 comedy slot for instance: we have a regular date on Fridays to listen to The Now Show or The News Quiz (depending on the six week cycle), and often listen to the repeat on Saturday lunchtime for the jokes we missed laughing. We like Benedict Cumberbatch and cast in Cabin Pressure, The Infinite Monkey Cage, PM and Tim Harford’s More or Less. And while I’ll listen to it all day, everyday, I am a particular fan of Woman’s Hour, The Book of the Week, The Archers, the Afternoon Play, Bill Nighy as Charles Paris whenever he’s on, Desert Island Discs, and many more.
Husband thinks I should turn off the radio if I leave the kitchen. I rarely do: I dip in and out of what’s on if I’m pottering about doing chores around the house, or, if I’m enjoying something in particular, I either turn up the volume or find a kitchen chore to do. When the family are at home I might find another radio or take this one with me - but he’s at home all the time now! And there’s cricket on despite it not being summer! I’ve had to retreat to my computer desk and put the iPlayer on!
Good news: England have won so I can have Radio 4 back in the kitchen... I'd better go and do something useful!
In contrast to last week’s pictures of The Smoke here is Dorset countryside in all its spring glory!
We visited a couple of lovely gardens, walked at an RSPB reserve, went to the pictures to see the latest Aardman animation, ate supper out, ate fish and chips in, ate tea and cake out, pottered round the local town’s shops, read and listened to Radio 4 even more than usual (no telly), did a jigsaw, walked up the hill, went to bed early and got up late. Bliss!
Lots of pinning, some stitching and ten metres of piping made: it is progress at least!
(See yesterday's post for the background.)
A date never happens again because it is simply a measure of time, but the 29th February (if we miss out the year) happens only every four years. So, if it’s an anniversary of something significant to you, I wish you a very Happy Leap Day!
I am a fan of the PM programme on Radio 4, especially when Eddie Mair is in charge. Leading up to today he has been encouraging his listeners to ‘take a leap for PM’. People are doing an enormous range of things from getting in touch with someone they’ve fallen out with, to eating chocolate (she is a recovering anorexic), leaving the house (he’s agoraphobic) to travelling home (he’s been serving in Afghanistan). As ever it is an eclectic mix of the personal, the laudable and the funny – it was Eddie Mair who got the nation sending in bursts of the Upstairs Downstairs music played on every instrument and in every music style as light relief to introduce the financial reports (nicknamed upshares downshares what else?) during the spiraling recession. (Madly we own a copy of the compilation made to raise funds for Children in Need.)
I have been putting off tackling a loose cover for a rather sad armchair that a friend has asked me to complete – another friend had started the job: the fabric had been cut into most of the pattern pieces and a piece of foam bought for the seat cushion which no longer exists. I have only once made a loose cover – for the little nursing chair I’m now reupholstering – and was not best pleased with it. Making clothes for a chair ought to be similar to making clothes for a person, but to look anything like they need to fit extra snuggly and be piped along some of the seams. It has been brooding in my sewing room watching me avoid it since September. Today I will make progress!
There has been a lot of talk on the radio this week about the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines regarding caesarian sections. Apparently the number of instances of women having this major abdominal surgery continues to rise. There was discussion about emergency operations, but it was those opting for elective surgery that was causing the most debate. It would appear that much focus is on whether the guidelines will change anything or whether, actually, this is what happens any way: if you have been given the facts about both forms of delivery, and still ask for a Caesar, you will be given one – even if it is not thought you need one for a medical reason and despite the fact that they are more expensive than a vaginal delivery. Much comment included the view that such surgery might be ‘easier’.
This is the moment to declare an interest: Eldest’s birth was a complete nightmare resulting in me, no longer compos mentis, being knocked out and cut open to get out the baby who was also in difficulty. The doctors never did seem to know why it hadn’t happened naturally, and it frightened the life out of me. When Youngest was due I went into panic mode and the kind doctors said I should have a planned C-section. I felt less of a drama queen when they announced that if Eldest had been in the same place as Youngest there was no way she was ever going to be born without interference. Since I didn’t actually give birth naturally I don’t really know what my recovery would have been like, but it didn't feel 'easy'. I can only add that a planned Caesar is a great deal better than an emergency!
When news of yet another celebrity birth was announced followed by pictures of the slender after-baby figure out shopping I got to wondering about caesarians in a different way… It had never even crossed my mind that ‘too posh to push’ wasn’t really about not pushing, it was about having a tummy tuck without having to admit you’d had surgery.
At no point did anyone mention giving my stomach a helping hand in recovering by nipping out a bit of the excess. I’m assuming it’s not something you could have done on the NHS. I’ve always presumed it was just my complete failure to do any sufficient exercise that means there is a roll of stomach that never flattens out even when lying down. I’m working on forgiving myself for failure in this area as a result of this new insight.
I have never yet discussed birth with another woman without a frank exchange of experiences. So, at the risk of inviting a deluge, how was it for you?
I love to read, and what I love to read is fairly eclectic. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy reminded me that I used to read a lot of what might loosely be called ‘boy’s’ fiction. I started with Ian Fleming falling in love with everything Bond. I moved on through Alistair MacLean, Geoffrey Jenkins, Clive Cussler and Leslie Thomas to John Le Carré, Len Deighton, Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum. When I find a ‘new’ author I look out for them at the library and work my way through their oeuvre. But tastes and interests sometimes move on before this has happened. So, while I think I’ve read every James Bond book, as well as the Charlie Higson Young Bond stories, for instance, I find on looking back that my Le Carré reading has been patchy. I have started again at the beginning! His first book, Call for the Dead, introduces us to George Smiley. I plan to work my way through the Smiley stories.
Another knock on my door came in the form of the schedule for BBC Radio 4 Extra. They are rebroadcasting Len Deighton’s Bomber on Friday. This was a heart wrenching but fictional account of a bombing raid on Germany on 31st June 1943, a day that has never happened in that or any other year, and told from every angle and in minute detail. So we hear the aircrew being briefed about their task, meet the civilian population in a small town in Germany, follow the flight, watch the bombs fall, are bombed on the ground, shot at in the sky and hope to get out of the book alive. It is a standout novel. But so is the BBC production: it is striped over the day’s drama slots in ‘real’ time. It will be a poignant listen for Remembrance Day.
