5. Sigh
So, last day of the half-term holidays.
One of my favourite Peanuts story lines is when Charlie Brown has been set the holiday assignment of reading and reviewing Gulliver’s Travels. He spends the week procrastinating, sits down towards the end of the holidays, opens up the book and says ‘Good Grief, this book has 522 pages’. In the next frame, he’s closing the book saying ‘I’ll start it tomorrow.’
4. I am the very slave of circumstance
My Lord, this is the case for the defence.
Firstly, it is a truth almost universally acknowledged that some Parkinson’s medications cause, as an unfortunate side-effect, a reduction in impulse control. This can lead to excessive spending or gambling; or to over-eating; or to a greatly increased sex-drive even, I am told, in term-time! I know, beggars belief, doesn’t it.
3. But I swear it was in self-defence…
“Here, come and look at this thing on the Parkinson’s UK website,” I say to ActorLaddie. “They want volunteers for a drugs trial.”
“I can’t – I’m stirring the soup. Give me the highlights,” says ActorLaddie. We’re big on soup in our house.
“Well, they want people who live in London, recently diagnosed, in their 50s. You have to mail for details. It might be good to feel that you’re part of the solution rather than part of the problem, don’t you think?”
“Don’t you mean as well as part of the problem?” grunts YoungLochinvar. He has a way with words.
2. Reasons to be Cheerful
“Parkinson’s?” boomed Mrs Jones. “That’s nothing. There are a couple of chaps down the Bowls Club with Parkinson’s. They go on some lovely trips.”
1. Today we have naming of blogs.
“I need a name for my blog,” I say to ActorLaddie, as he stirs the soup. “I want something that reflects the subject but doesn’t sound too morose.”
“How about ‘I’ve got Parkinson’s LOL’ ?”
The Jelly Chronicles 