The person living behind sliding glass doors

There is a place, sometimes, where there is a person whose sole interaction can be with the white long-off silences that surround him behind the sliding doors- doors that always slide from left to right. Only he can see the glass slab sliding inexorably towards its sound-stilling full stop, that it happens too frequently in this period of time, four sliding doors of glass shutting him off from that which he may not see of himself.

Only visually, sounds remain a muted whispering of browning leaves and expectant trees, a musical prison, a happy place?

2 September 2011

Of illnesses and mental health

1 September 2011

In 2010 I paralleled the British Queen in suffering an annus horribilis of the Belgian variety. Whereas this year I have been a pillar of physical health last year saw me suffering from pneumonia, but this led to clogged-up pipes. Sofie then solved that by giving me some mysterious muti, which in turn led to problems with you-know-where. That became so bad that I ended up in hospital!

Without trying to sound too much like an old man, I also developed an eye problem with visits to the eye surgeon (the problem is that my tear ducts become infected). Luckily this time medication and creams solved the problem, but a year or so before , when I had the same difficulty I made the mistake (it was the day before Xmas) of seeing a retired eye doctor and he said it was a simple exercise to “clean out” (I'll never forget those words!) my infected and blocked tear ducts: without any anaesthetic or so he calmly produced a syringe and plunged it down into my eye, the last thing I saw was his shaking hand. Whew, it was as frightening as the day the elephant chased me at Mana Pools in Zimbabwe! Luckily this year my tear ducts have been working over-time so little fear of any blockages.

And just to round the year off nicely I was stricken with shingles, a nice reminder of my student days when under exam stress I also had shingles.

So far this year has been good, physically, emotionally, well let's see next year.