Achievements and High Drama!

It seems like a time for achievements in my life. After years of not being able to do much on a day to day basis, I'm gradually starting to feel my way. Projects are getting completed and come with a great deal of satisfaction at the work done.

An example of this is a project I was asked to do last year, the construction of a trophy book for a flower arranging club. This not only involved the calligraphy work, but a small amount of book binding as well as a cover completed in cross stitch. As you can see, it has come out well. I gave it to the person who requested it last Sunday, who appeared very pleased by the work.

Then, just when you think that setbacks are a thing of the past, high drama occurs at Brighton Marina. I had gone with a friend to see the latest Star Trek movie. It so happened that it was in 3D. I had never seen a film in 3D before, so was looking forward to the experience.

The film was great; the 3D glasses appeared OK. As the film neared it's conclusion, I thought 'I do feel a bit nauseous,' but put it down to being in a relatively small room with a large screen. As we got up to go out of the cinema, I started to feel very strange - not dizzy but spaced out, very disorientated; so much so that my friend, who is in her 70's, had to hold onto me. At one point I was leaning against the wall outside of the cinema because I felt so strange. Eventually we moved to an area where there were seats and I had a glass of water. After around 30 minutes, when I started to feel better, I drove my friend to her home where she made me lie down for a while, before I drove very carefully home.

Looking on the Internet, I found that people have experienced side effects watching films in 3D. It just never occurred to me that I might be one of them. It was quite a bad experience because, although I thought the film was very good, I'm now not going to be able to think of it without remembering this 'funny turn', which is a shame.

What to Do With All This Energy?

What do you do when you seem to have more energy that you have had for years?

Well, first you don’t believe it. For quite a while now I have been operating on the principle of doing a little bit of whatever I felt able to do, then resting for a short while, then doing a bit more. It became a little frustrating, but I had learned from bitter experience that if I disregarded this advice that I had been given then I would pay for it in tiredness and not being able to do anything.

Then, after my operation last year, I could sense things had changed a bit. I felt better in myself, but still knew I had to be careful over what I was doing. Indecision then became the name of the game. I was never very sure what I was capable of doing and, in a way frightened that if I overdid it, it would be back to the beginning again. So, for a long time, I was taking baby steps of progress, not sure whether I was doing the right thing or not.

This year, and especially over the past couple of weeks, it’s like the energy has gone into overload. Whether the extra light with the clocks going back and the Winter giving way to Spring has been a feature, I really don’t know, but it feels quite astonishing.

One of the things that really gripped me was the Facebook games. I felt, ‘well if I can’t do anything else, I can do those.’ The problem was they were gripping me and I found I was occupying large amounts of time to them during a day (not several hours, but around a couple). I knew it wasn't good for me but was too fearful to change. It’s when you start to do the games that are so obviously for children that you have to start thinking, ‘what is going on?’

Last Saturday, all that changed. I made the decision to stop playing Facebook games and to concentrate on my interests; our house, my calligraphy and my writing course. All these had been suffering before. The past few days have been interesting. I have had more time and have been able to concentrate on those aforementioned things. I have done things that I have wanted to get on with for some time. Even housework is getting done. I might even spring clean!

I'm not saying I don’t feel tired. I do! And I'm ready for bed in the evening. But it’s not the bone aching weariness that I used to go through and my life has more colour. As I improve in health, my confidence grows and in that growth, I find I am accomplishing more than I have done in a long while. Long may it continue.