grandson

A difficult winter

Sunset over Stará Oleška 10th November 2022 © Ricky Yates

I have to start this post by once again apologising for the long time gap since the last one. I had been hoping to publish the final instalment of my ongoing saga with Barclays Bank plc. I’ve already written the first half of a draft post. But unfortunately, the matter is still not resolved so I will hold off posting until it is brought to a satisfactory conclusion.

The other reason for the lack of a new post is that I have had a rather rough winter, particularly with regard to my health. Now that I am finally feeling nearly 100%, here is what has been happening to me this winter.

Back on Thursday 13^th October 2022, I paid my regular visit to my GP in Prague, for my International Normalised Ratio (INR) to be checked, to establish the exact amount of Warfarin that I have to take to thin my blood. I also asked about having a Covid booster vaccination and Dr Stonawski said it could be done there and then and passed me on to Dr Youngová, the boss of the practice. She vaccinated me and suggested that I really ought to also have a flu jab, something I’ve never previously had. So I agreed. Therefore I had a needle in my finger for INR, one in my left arm for Covid, and one in my right arm for flu 🙁

Eleven days later, I visited my friend, Adrian Blank, down in Nepomuk for the changeover to winter tyres on my car. He also accompanied me to the testing station in nearby Horažd’ovice, where the car successfully passed STK, (the Czech equivalent of the UK MOT test), meaning it is safe and legal to drive for the next two years.

With all of that done, I felt that both my body and my car were ready to face the coming winter. But whilst the car has continued to function perfectly, now nearly two years on from when I bought it, the same cannot be said for my body 🙁

Unfortunately, soon after receiving my jabs in October, I developed a most annoying cough. Particularly during the night, I would wake up, start coughing and then not be able to go back to sleep. It also considerably affected my ability to sing.

The Embassy Singers & part of the congregation on Sunday 4th December 2022 at the Frauenkirche, Dresden © Ricky Yates

It was an absolute delight on the evening of Sunday 4^th December, to be able to hold a service of Nine Lessons and Carols in the Frauenkirche, Dresden, for the first time since December 2019. As in previous pre-Covid years, the Embassy Singers from Berlin under their director Andrew Sims, provided a number of choir items as well as supporting the singing of the congregational carols. But as I tried to sing, I regularly ended up coughing 🙁

Introducing Nine Lessons and Carols at the Frauenkirche, Dresden, Sunday 4th December 2022 © Ricky Yates

The following Friday, I set out to travel to the UK, driving across Germany and the Netherlands to take the overnight ferry from Hoek van Holland to Harwich. I then spent the weekend, staying with my Czech friend Rev’d Dagmar Wilkinson, who has previously featured in this blog here and here. Dagmar is now the Rector of St John the Evangelist, Friern Barnet in North London. It was a privilege to be the preacher at a Sung Eucharist on Sunday morning.

With Rev’d Dagmar Wilkinson at St John the Evangelist, Friern Barnett, London © Ricky Yates

Here we both are in front of the high altar, following the service. Fortunately, my voice was OK for preaching but I once more ended up coughing when trying to sing the hymns.

That Sunday evening, London had the fairly rare experience of a heavy snowfall. Here is my car parked outside Dagmar’s Rectory on the Monday morning. I had to clear that lot off it before I could drive up to Nottingham.

The centrepiece of my December UK visit was to attend my son Phillip’s graduation ceremony at Nottingham Trent University. He was awarded his Masters in Business Administration (MBA), with commendation, a tremendous achievement for someone with a full-time job, a young family, and coping with the Covid pandemic through most of the time of his studies.

However, I did feel I had the right to stand in front of the board saying ‘Congratulations’ as I proofread, spell checked and grammar checked each of his assignments before he submitted them. As Phillip famously wrote to me after he received his final assessment, we got a commendation, Dad 🙂

I also spent two nights staying near Daventry in order to visit my daughter Christa, son-in-law Ian, and my two grandsons.

Here are my first attempt at taking a selfie with each of my grandsons.

This selfie with Finley was taken at the CBS Arena in Coventry on Saturday 17^th December where we watched my football club, Coventry City FC, playing Swansea City FC. Taking Finley to the match was his Christmas present from me as well as a Christmas present to myself 😉

My return journey started the following day when I drove to Harwich for the ferry back across the North Sea to Hoek van Holland. By this time the cough had become some form of respiratory infection. I was coughing up large amounts of phlegm, had a runny, but blocked nose, problems with my hearing and feeling increasingly weak. Normally I do not mind the long drive across the Netherlands and Germany, in order get home. But I have to say that I struggled to keep driving on Monday 19^th December, not helped by the very limited hours of daylight.

I arrived home late that evening to find snow lying in my garden and a sheet of ice on the driveway and path to the front door. There is a gentle slope from the road up to my front gates but it took three attempts before I managed to drive the car up that slope and into the carport. And the house was absolutely freezing!

During that week before Christmas, I received an email from my GP surgery, setting out dates and times their surgery would be open during the Christmas period. But it also acknowledged that there were a lot of respiratory viruses circulating and offered some helpful advice on how to treat their symptoms, including details of over-the-counter drugs that are available without prescription. I decided that I would try not to trouble the surgery but instead, follow their advice.

Andrew & Gethin’s Christmas Tree © Ricky Yates

On Christmas Eve evening, I was invited to the home of my friends Andrew and Gethin in Obercunnersdorf, about fifty minutes drive north from Stará Oleška, in Freistaat Sachen. A wonderful supper was followed by a candlelit Carol Service in the village Lutheran Church. Unfortunately, because of my respiratory problems, I could hardly hear or sing.

Knowing that I had my next GP appointment for INR already arranged for Tuesday 3rd January, I spent the days after Christmas and into the New Year, taking things easy and my health slowly started to improve. When I saw Dr Stonawski, he checked me thoroughly all over and declared that I had been suffering with bronchitis as he could hear that there were still problems in my chest. However, all he could suggest was that should continue to take it easy and my condition should slowly improve. It took until the end of January before I finally lost the last vestiges of my cough.

However, at the beginning of February, I began to get an itchy rash on my back, which soon spread around the sides of my chest, to my arms and to my right leg. Again, as I had my next INR appointment booked for Tuesday 14^th February, I decided to hang on until then before seeking medical advice. When Dr Stonawski took one look at my back he immediately wrote a report asking the dermatology department of Vojenské nemocnice, the Military Hospital in Prague, to see me that day as an emergency. There, the dermatologist that I saw, diagnosed it as some form of eczema. I was given a cortisone injection in my rear and prescribed various pills and creams.

The photo above shows all the prescribed drugs I took away from the pharmacy that afternoon. I should stress that it does include repeat prescriptions for the medication I regularly take for the problems with my blood and heart. But I have been rattling with pills in the morning for the last two weeks. Fortunately, I am please to report that my skin is responding to treatment and whilst it is still discoloured, I’ve all but lost the itch. I’ve already had one follow-up appointment and another is due next week.

Logs delivered on Wednesday 15th February 2023 © Ricky Yates

The day after my trip to Prague for INR and my emergency visit to the dermatologist, I had my second delivery of logs for this winter, deposited in my back garden. So despite still not feeling well, I had to transport all of them into my woodshed and stack them there, before they got rained or snowed on. I’m quite proud of myself that I managed to achieve this in the space of a week.

Logs stacked in the woodshed 22/02/2023 © Ricky Yates

Here they all are, stacked in the woodshed.

I’m very glad I did as, on the morning of Sunday 26^th February, my seventy-first birthday, this was the view from my front door…

….and from my back door.

As far as I can remember, it was the first ‘White Birthday’ I’ve had since 1963. Yes, I was singing, ‘I’m dreaming of a White Birthday’, numerous times that day 🙂

A very hot summer and a visit to the UK

The dry stream bed of Olešnicka © Ricky Yates

I need to start this post with a sincere apology to those who regularly visit and follow my blog, for the very long gap between my post about further progress with the house and garden in early June, and my post about walking above Kanon Labe, published ten days ago. As a result of my blogging inactivity, July 2018 became the first month in the nine-and-a-half years of my blog’s existence, in which I did not publish a post 🙁

My main excuse for my lack of blogging over this summer has been the weather. For the past three months, the Czech Republic, along with much of Central Europe, has experienced a heatwave with daytime temperatures well in excess of 30°C and virtually no rain. These conditions have not been conducive to me sitting down and writing coherently. They have also not been conducive to making much further progress either with the house or the garden.

The photograph on the left shows the course of Olešnicka, the stream that runs through Stará Oleška. As you can see, it is completely dry! The only consolation is that the grass at the side of the stream bed is still green, unlike my front and back lawns which are completely yellow and rock hard 🙁

Some relief finally arrived two days ago when I was woken at 07.30 by the crash of thunder and a heavy downpour of rain. We then had further rain off-and-on during that day and yesterday. But we still need plenty more! However, what there has been is a most welcome drop in temperature with the day time high today being only 18°C and the forecast saying that it will only rise into the low 20s°C in the coming few days.

This improvement in the weather has made me determined to get my blog going again and start posting regularly here once more. I have plenty of things to write about, but for this post, I’ll confine myself to the week I spent in the UK, Monday 25^th June – Monday 2^nd July, which at the time, was also experiencing a heatwave.

I flew from Prague to East Midlands Airport (EMA), with Jet2.com, who now regularly fly the route twice a week on Mondays and Fridays. I have to say I was impressed, with both flights leaving on time and arriving early, a considerable improvement on my previous flying experiences with Wizz Air between Prague to Luton.

From Monday night until the morning of Saturday 30^th June, I stayed with my son Phillip and daughter-in-law Lisa at their home in Nottingham. And of course, I got to spend time with my granddaughter Pearl 🙂

Here she is with her Dad!

Whilst this is Granddad’s favourite photograph of his granddaughter, taken during his visit.

On the afternoon of Friday 29^th June, I also travelled down to Daventry to visit my daughter Christa, son-in-law Ian, and my grandson Finley. Here I am with Finley on his bike. Grateful thanks to Ian for the photograph.

I spent the weekend in Sheffield, in order to attend and take part in the ordination as priest, of my Czech friend Dagmar Wilkinson, whose ordination as deacon I attended on Sunday 2^nd July 2017. The ordination service took place in Sheffield Cathedral on the afternoon of Saturday 30^th June, presided over by the new Bishop of Sheffield, Rt Rev’d Dr Pete Wilcox.

Standing between Rev’d Frances Eccleston & Rev’d Dagmar Wilkinson © Ricky Yates

Here I am once more, standing in-between two ordained ladies – the newly ordained Dagmar on the right and her training incumbent Rev’d Frances Eccleston on the left. Frances and her husband Steve, kindly hosted me over the weekend as Dagmar had her parents and other friends and relatives staying with her.

Here is Dagmar, standing between her proud parents, following the ordination service.

With Dagmar, following her first celebration of the Eucharist © Ricky Yates

On the morning of Sunday 1^st July, I was privileged to be present at the Parish Church of All Saints, Aston cum Aughton, as Dagmar celebrated the Eucharist for the first time. Here she is with me, fully robed!

Following worship, there was an excellent parish lunch, held in the adjoining Church Hall, at the end of which we all got to share in a piece of this cake, especially made by one of the parishioners to mark the occasion.

Children and grandchildren

As I mentioned at the beginning of my previous post, during my recent UK visit, as well as attending the Ordination of Deacons service in Sheffield Cathedral, I was also able to spend time with both my adult children and their families. This is a brief photographic family blog post before returning once more, to writing about life in my new home in North Bohemia.

The last time I was with my son Phillip and daughter-in-law Lisa, was on their wedding day, eleven months previously. They have since then, actively taken notice of the third reason that marriage is given, according to the liturgy of the Church of England, ‘as the foundation of family life in which children may be born and nurtured’. This photograph was taken at lunchtime on Lisa’s last day at work before going on maternity leave 🙂

Likewise, I hadn’t seen my daughter Christa, son-in-law Ian and grandson Finley, since the wedding ceremony on 30^th July 2016. Whilst Finley had inevitably grown since I last saw him, what I most noticed was how vocal and talkative he had become, even if he struggled at times to know what to call me 🙂

My grandson Finley, driving his car © Ricky Yates

Finley, trying to use his mother’s mobile phone, having just eaten an ice cream 🙂 © Ricky Yates

As well as these two photographs of Finley, for the first time in many years, I managed to get a photograph of Phillip and Christa together, seen here sitting on a bench in the garden of Christa’s home in Daventry.

Finally for this post, to bring everything right up-to-date, on Wednesday 2^nd August, I became a grandfather for the second time, when my daughter-in-law Lisa, gave birth to Pearl Yasmin Yates. Below are a couple of photos of my new granddaughter whose acquaintance I look forward to making, later this year.