keep taking the tablets...

Date: 14 December 2012 20:03:01

Today I have been mostly thinking about blood pressure, putting on weight and the flu jab. It's just great getting old! It was the bi annual visit to the GP today - always strange in a foreign language and nothing if not exciting. Now another pill to take - that makes three - two in the morning and one at night, and tomorrow another visit to the nurse and another blood test.

So, do more exercise, eat nothing nice and not as much of it anyway, and as for those glasses of wine, forget them, its all 'interdit' and don't- forget- to- take -your- pills -

However, mustn't moan - every day's a bonus and if remembering a few pills is all I have to worry about it I'll settle for that.

Its not like going to a GP in the UK - in our little village practice here, there is no receptionist to tell you you don't need to see a doctor - you make the appointment with him and see him. He listens, he explains everything - often twice to make sure you understand and charges you 23 euros which is reimbursed from the state and your health insurance. OK so sometimes you have to wait because his appointment system isn't brilliant and he takes a lot of time with each person, but I'm not complaining.

Now about this 'more exercise' malarkey... Shall I buy a rowing machine? A Jane Fonda workout DVD for the over 50s? Not another running machine surely? I used the other one a lot - well.. ok.. maybe half a dozen times at the most. A cross trainer? I am bad tempered enough sometimes. A static bike? Hmmm.. I have a selection of bikes here including one I now can't get on to, (I was a lot younger when B bought it for me). I even have a super one with a battery, but it might be raining, snowy, icy, slippery....

I already have a dog and walk with her every day - maybe I should get another? Would I walk twice as far with two dogs or twice as far and even faster with a bigger dog? No, definitely one dog is quite enough! And actually a lot more than enough when she has rolled in something the fox, sangliar or deer left behind.

And talking of the doglet - she likes to sleep quite a bit - and if the room is warm...

Now its off for supper, a glass or two of wine, and are they crisps I see begging to be eaten with the cheese? Those lovely bags of chocolates the french have at Christmas - wrapped in tinfoil with frilly edges like small Chrismas crackers with a quote or motto inside, are nestling among the tangerines. Mmmm, delicious indeed.