The picture is the antithesis of my day. Slept well, advised pool open again. It was! And all lifts working. Usual mental boost I get with swimming. Back to apartment, breakfast there, inedible bread and mingy butter. Back to bed for half an hour, but long hair had got soaked, so up and dry it. Look at Moodscope and news. Flushed with success having booked a hotel for UK in January went for the double, a flight. British Airways web-site a minefield. Alongside the actual plane details and prices are all sorts of inducements. Do NOT tick anything. Got flights, they gave the seating plan, 43 euros for seat of your choice! Presumably you have a right to a seat, don’t think it is safe to stand, although son says people standing on an Aeroflot flight to Cuba.

Got to payment, SMS security code, personal security code, then message bank would not pay. Tried twice, gave up, phoned bank later, no explanation, try tomorrow, Wednesday may be lucky. Phone call from my great mentor, guide through all the years of research. He had strained his ankle badly in Tunisia, 6 days in bed, wife just out of hospital. Children due for Christmas. Daughter vegetarian, but has managed to weigh 18 stone and a serious worry. Son no gluten, no sugar, no dairy, can he eat hay?

Down to lunch. This place is a marvel at paper wastage. A5 notice in lift and restaurant entrance, Brussels sprouts replaced with green beans. Wow! The relief. But lunch was so sad. Woman who asked to sit with me sighs throughout. Jacques, the stroke victim, has taken a turn for the worse. This place is for ‘autonomous’ people. He could not walk, so his wife got him down sitting on his walker. She is tall, elegant, erudite and 85. She and I got him seated somehow, but he gets very angry, with reason, it does not help. She was in tears, waitress hugged them both. But it is another awful step. She likes their apartment, can have breakfast on her terrace when it is sunny. His deterioration will mean either splitting up (happened with another couple) she stays, he in a care home, agonising for all concerned, me included, got fond of them both. Back to sleep to a film, infallible. Phone, grand-daughter, new mum, tried to get What’s App video, failed dismally, but 5 day old went for her first coffee morning, and met her cousins on Saturday. Then son from Scotland, discussed deterioration of world, conclusion people have always been pretty nasty to each other. Reading super book, two sisters, French, 24 and 18, rode horses from Paris, in 1973, following the Crusaders route to Jerusalem. 

I am at the stage when they are in Syria, at war then. They had finance and publicity, Hungary went overboard with press and TV. They were mobbed for the rest of their journey, not always pleasant. The description of their overnight stays is mind-boggling. Right, off to play French Scrabble, harmless. 

The Gardener

A Moodscope member