Peter's Hospital Diary

I had a good couple of days back down in Plymouth – it was good to return, although the reason was work related, but even the meeting went well, and I left on time to get back home in the early evening. As travel goes, it wasn’t that glamorous, but it is another small step in ‘getting my life back’! And it looks as if the lemon tree is also picking up again after its earlier hissy fit. It has lost some branches, but the new leaves look healthier. I’m not sure that we will get any lemons this year though…

I rather glossed over last weekend, but I happened to mention smoked food in the comments, and provoked several other food related comments, so as this blog has never shied away from talking about food…!

The occasion was a party at my next-door-neighbour’s house to celebrate their daughter’s 18th birthday. Like us, they like a BBQ (in fact they are far more prolific BBQers than I) but while I am all in favour of gas BBQs, Chris prefers a proper charcoal fire! (In truth I do too, but preferably in half a 45 gallon oil drum cut in half, top to bottom, but that makes it a bit big for a domestic event).

Anyway, to get on with the story, Chris has just a bought a smoker and having BBQ’d during the party, he decided to carry out his first ‘smoking’ on some chicken pieces. I have to say that at the end of 2 hours, they smelled delicious, although as I had already eaten quite a lot, and my mouth was sore, I didn’t try it. However it did lead onto discussions about what else could be smoked. The obvious candidates are gammon, beef, and oily fish such as salmon, trout and mackerel. But cheese is also a contender, so I am looking forward to his next experiments!

I have to add that talk of food is still a mixed pleasure at the moment. My sense of smell is slowly returning, and my sense of taste is also improving slightly, but I still have to careful about what I eat as my mouth is still sore. It is slightly worse today after my stay away, because I had less control over what I was eating, so while I managed a pretty much normal diet, some of the rougher texture food has irritated my tongue again. Chairing a meeting (lots of chat!0 didn’t help either! I am also conscious of the fact that I am now a very slow eater, mainly because I need to cut food up into very small portions to make chewing easier. It is very frustrating! However, in the grand scheme of things, it is a small frustration and minor inconvenience.

This morning I managed porridge, but a ham sandwich for lunch was tricky, and I am half way through a scandishake (brought to work in a flask) However I do seem to be putting on a little weight and some of my clothes fit slightly better than they did four weeks ago.

I haven’t taken any new photos of Olivia, but I have got some that Vicki has taken. They have been added to the gallery. Incidentally, it is possible to jump straight back to the blog by clicking on the ‘Return to Blog’ link (in blue) underneath the description on the gallery main page.

I haven’t come up with any ideas for renaming the blog. I could (as Neil G suggested) drop hospital from the title, but as this blog was initionaly about my hospital and health experiences, perhaps not. Maybe just change the description – which was last changed in August 2006!

Onwards and upwards!

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