Gone shopping

Friday morning.  The Old Bat is at the MS Treatment Centre for her hyperbaric oxygen session so I have taken myself off to the supermarket with the shopping list.  At least, that is the situation if you are reading this.  Of course, I do fully appreciate that you might not be reading this while I am in the supermarché but I am writing this on Thursday and will ask Blogger very nicely to schedule it for posting tomorrow morning.  I really cannot even begin to think why it is that I want my posts to show in the morning.  Anytime at all during the day would be quite alright, but there it is.

It seems that I have been doing the Friday shopping run for several months now.  It always was the case that the Old Bat would drive herself to the MS Centre and do the shopping on her way home, then the wind started getting up and as she is so unsteady on her feet, I was dragooned into driving her so she could take my arm while walking.  "Dragooned" is a particularly poor choice of word as it implies that I didn't want to do it whereas I am quite content to help where I can.

I must say that the Old Bat has been remarkable stoical about her gradually deteriorating condition.  I don't remember how many years ago it was - three, possibly four - that we were at King's College Hospital in London when she was told that there is no treatment for it.  After we had returned to the car she said to me, "It's not going to go away, is it?" - rather tearfully - and that is the only time she has shown anything like self-pity.  I do try to avoid doing things that she can no longer do, such as going on the Brighton Wheel yesterday, but quite obviously that is not always possible.  Somebody has to walk the dog, for instance.  But it certainly does cramp her style.

Mention of the Brighton Wheel prompts me to post this picture taken while I was on the Wheel on Wednesday.  This is the view to the east.  You can see Volk's Railway - the oldest electric railway in the world -running along the top of the beach as far as the marina, the man-made harbour in the distance.  Beyond that are the chalk cliffs running past Roedean to Rottingdean, Saltdean and on eventually to Beachy Head (although we can see no further than Peacehaven in this picture).