There are no monsters under my bed.

This was written in September 09 before I started this blog and I came across it today.

There are no monsters under my bed. I say that with conviction, I actually looked and didn’t see any. I was transferring from my bed to the wheel chair and got myself too close to the edge of the bed. I felt myself start to slip off the edge and before I could stop, began the slow slide over the last ridge of the mattress. I’ve heard of flying by the seat of your pants but this was so not cool and there was no flying involved. It was more of a controlled crash landing with no emphasis on the word controlled.
I let the dust clear and assessed the situation from floor level. My wheel chair was tantalisingly close it was just a case of stand up and Bob’s your uncle. Bob was not my uncle this morning, I doubt he ever will be. No matter how I arranged my legs I couldn’t find the right position to get up, and we won’t talk about the lack of strength first thing in the morning.
I know I’m a stubborn bugger and I don’t ask for help easily, I wasn’t brought up to be a wussy but I had to give in to self reasoning. Either I exhaust myself right there and then or, push the damn button hanging on round my neck and get a nurse to come help me up. Say no more.
So now I have a few peaceful moments to myself and I decided to take the opportunity to check for monsters under my bed. I mean, you never can be too sure that there’s nothing under there.
Hey! I watched ‘Monsters inc’.

I went out and about yesterday. Not that I haven’t been out before but it’s always been on my way somewhere. I’ve been trying to find a pair of shoes for winter and up until now haven’t had much luck. The shoes have to accommodate the AFOs that I wear and also must be easy to put on. I learnt recently that tying shoe laces is very nearly impossible for me. Talk about a frustrating exercise with fingers that just don’t cooperate. When holding a pen to write, I picked up the trick of looking at my hand as I write. I didn’t believe that trick until I had to do a psychological test and had to write and draw with both hands.
When I first looked for shoes I thought nothing of getting lace ups until I was asked to tie them. I stared down at my hands and achieved absolutely nothing. I even gave myself a good talking to in front of the shop assistant who looked at me with a degree of perplexity. The saying ‘mad dogs and Englishmen comes to mind’ and I wondered how long before he called the men in white coats.
Any way, yesterday I decided to go to the shop that supplied me with the AFOs. I bought my present shoes there. Miriam kindly offered to take me as she wanted my AFOs to be checked over and kind of refurbished. Of course we won’t talk about the price of said shoes but at the end of the day I have a quality pair of shoes that are comfortable and not too difficult to slip on.
On our way back we drove along the lake shore, it’s a seriously scenic drive with vineyards and orchards along the way with glimpses of water just meters away, waterfront properties with boats close by and some serious cars. An Aston Martin DB9 came growling past and then howled away, that sound just sets the heart racing. Miriam didn’t get it but then again, she’s a girl and cars aren’t her thing.
We came into the town of Rolle, apart from being on the lake there’s two things I know about Rolle. 1 there’s an ice-cream shop that’s well known and 2 there’s a chocolatier that makes awesome chocolate… I’ve had both.
We decided to go for some coffee down at the lake, found a parking and set off in search of a lakeside café.
It was so peaceful and tranquil along the lake and although there were lots of people around you didn’t hear them. There were people dotted around, reading, swimming, working on laptops, taking the dog for a walk or running or on bicycles. There’s an abundance of bird life from water fowl to ducks to sparrows to something that sounds and looks like a sea gull. I need to get a book on local birds as Miriam was asking me about them, give me an SA bird and I’ll probably know what it is but these one’s, no ways. I know what a duck is and pointed that out to Miriam. She gave me a look and said “I know that”.
“But”, I said “The colourful one is the male, all of us males stand out”. I received another look and my wheel chair edged closer to the lake…
I decided to keep quiet.