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1. Main Theme
- Swings and roundabouts
2.
London Book Fair 2016 - Shame!
3.
Health
Champion Project - Back on track
4.
Friends and
Family. - Emily's nuptials
5.
Metaphors and Matzo
Balls. - Finally!
Main Theme
Swings and roundabouts
Occasionally a glorious
event brightens my existence as if to reimburse me for the
pile of faeces that life has handed me.
I have for a long time
believed - without any body of scientific evidence - that
there is a natural law that governs and regulates the degree
of incidence (whether for good or ill) that is experienced
before an opposite force starts to operate.
Human curiosity and the desire to find meaning in events
makes us suckers for non-rational beliefs. It is easier for
us to accept Jung's "meaningful coincidence", i.e.
synchronicity, than to believe that coincidences might be
totally meaningless. If it looks like pork, tastes likes
pork and smells like pork, it must be pork, regardless of
any evidence to the contrary. If you play red, you will
ultimately win, regardless of how often black has come up.
Coincidence means more than statistics. And how many people
have gone broke or insane or both believing that?
Nevertheless it was
totally unexpected, while enduring the chest pains and other
discomforts resultant from my recent fall, to receive a Facebook message response to a query I had posed slightly
more than two years ago.
In March 2014, while
writing my work-in-progress autobiographical memories and
glimpses of people who have influenced my life, entitled
You Don’t Apologise for Chutzpah, I was reminiscing
about my friend of university days, now alas dead, Kurt
Klappholz. I was anxious to learn what had happened to him
between our last meeting and his death.
Klappholz being a far
from common name, I imagined there would be little
difficulty in locating one or more connections via Google.
In fact, I did find one, David, and sent him a Facebook
message asking if he was related to the late Kurt. I
received no reply.
One year later, in March
2015, I spotted another Klappholz – Ieuan – and sent him a
tentative enquiry.
Imagine my surprise,
therefore, when, one year later, on April 12, 2016, I was
informed by Facebook that I had received a private message
which, on opening, claimed to be from Kurt’s grandson Ieuan,
and informing me that David was indeed Kurt’s son.
We have since had an
email exchange. I sent David the relevant section of my
(uncompleted) book, which touched him greatly, and he has
promised to send me some photos of his father subsequent to
the conclusion of my biographical sketch, which can be seen
at
http://www.conts.com/Pearls/MyKurt.htm.
If this has not
stretched the bounds of coincidence too far, I might add
that the Klappholzes, father and son, both live in a part of
South Wales just a few miles away from the town where, five
years ago, I was negotiating to buy a house. The purchase
fell through when I discovered an unacceptable ordinance
imposed by the Borough Council (though never applied) and I
was unwilling to take the risk that I might at some stage be
required to fulfil the condition at considerable expense.
London
Book Fair 2016
For more than a decade I have
welcomed the opportunity to attend this impressive annual
event. I was disappointed with the decision to change
the venue from Earls Court to Olympia last year. I
found Olympia to be less congenial and welcoming than Earls
Court. I also found it more confusing to navigate.
This year my opinion was not changed.
But what was an even greater
consideration for me was the accidental fall I had had a
week earlier which so bruised my chest (as well as giving me
a facial appearance frightening enough to set dogs barking
and children crying - see profile picture above!) that it was impossible for
me to survive more than a couple of hours in that airless
(or seemingly so) vast arena on what was the first really
hot day of the year.
So I had to dispense with the
programme I had outlined for myself and hope that next year
will prove more convivial.
Health Champion Project
We continue to develop new skills and
improved methods of dealing with people at the medical
practices, and the fallout has been gratifying.
Paula McLaren, the practice nurse who is spearheading
this project, has written to say "I am hearing great
things from patients and staff alike so well done-
fantastic job!" As time passes and new experiences
are encountered, we have been able to refine both
methods and materials. Together with colleague
Caroline, I will be attending the monthly PPG (Patients'
Participation Group) at the Oak Lodge Medical Centre, where we expect to have to
describe and explain the nature of the project and our
roles in it.
We have also been lending support to
the TB Awareness initiative.
Friends
and family.
Daughter Emily's wedding ceremony In Brize
Norton, Oxfordshire, on April 10 was a day of such pride and
pleasure to me that I was determined it would not be marred
by my accident three days earlier. I did have to
arrange for my friend Maria to drive me there from Watford,
rather than my driving her as I had intended, and I did try
to avert my head from the photographer's lens to hid my
injury - not altogether successfully as can be seen in the
pictures reproduced below.
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Walking Emily
up the aisle
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After the
ceremony |
What a wonderful experience after a year
in which we both had to deal with life-threatening
conditions. Emily's, I must confess, was far more
serious than my own, and her subsequent remission and this
happy event was so very greatly appreciated.
Metaphors and Matzo Balls.
There are still some copies of my private
printing available at cost
price of £4.00 sterling to include postage. Just send
a cheque made out to ASPEN, together with a mailing address,
to the address shown below.
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