Emmaus South Lambeth

What a speed-up week it’s been - probably the result of my enforced rest due to my poorly foot last week, I suppose, but it’s really flown by.

First, a welcome to our new Companion Andy, who joined us on Monday. I was driving the Bookings Desk for a couple of days, and on Thursday I tempted Providence by going out delivering newsletters again - but all I broke this time was a fingernail, I’m relieved to report!

We had a couple of birthdays this week - well, one’s actually for Sunday, but since the Companion was to be away on holiday, we got in early and presented the cake on Friday, having got into practise with a cake for Deputy John a day before his birthday - but at the evening meal the night before, when he was on duty, since there isn’t time to do a cake justice at lunch times!

I have at last managed to get a decent stretch in at the allotment this week;  a quick recce on Friday, to work out the dozens of Chores to be Done, then a couple of hours on Saturday preparing a stretch of the patch to be terraced - and all of four hours on Sunday.  The seeds I sowed last week are starting to sprout on the windowsill (well, in trays on the windowsill, I should say), some of them so fast I’m wondering if I bought tryffids by mistake!  However, their growth speed is a great incentive to getting the beds ready for them, of course.  Andy very kindly helped me move the tool box, which was a good excuse to give it a (hmm, somewhat overdue!) clear-out!

Today I bought the seed potatoes and I think I’ve decided to stick to First Earlies, which will provide the new potatoes which can be so horribly costly - and are so particularly delicious straight from the earth.  I have trouble visualising how much space the bag-fuls will take once they’re planted, so I hope we have enough room!  I am getting the assistance of a couple of Companions next Thursday, for the Heaving of Heavy Stuff (ie, bricking the terraces);  mending the fruit cage netting at 6′6″ (tricky for someone 5′3″);  and digging up acres of mis-placed Cultivated Blackberry and transferring it to the fence so a) it has a climbing frame and b) deters any potential wilful intruders from climbing it too.

Next week we have an all-day training session on methods to deal with bullying and aggression - it’s astonishing how …excitable… Joe Public can become when told they can’t have a discount, (like they ask for one at John Lewis, Ikea or Curry’s?) or get their new spare bed delivered by tea-time today when their mother-in-law arrives, etc etc.  So I’m very much looking forward to all the tips I can learn from that. 
 
Which I may relate next week.

Best wishes,
Elizabeth

Hello again,

If only the NHS did ‘Frequent Flyer’ tokens, we’d be quids in this week; Kings had the dubious pleasure of my company three times in 7 days, but I reassure you now, all’s well. Having been taken to A&E for the ricked ankle last Friday, I had to attend physio on in on Monday and they gave me a series of exercises to do 3 x daily which are agony… However, when I’m tempted to give up half-way through, I seem to see the allotment fading away, which gets me through.

The final visit was on account of a Companion having an infected wisdom tooth removed surgically, which required an escort. We arrived in good time, and didn’t see toomany previous patients wandering out moaning and clutching their jaws! I was bemused when they asked for MY telephone number, even when I explained I would stay right there, in the waiting room. No sooner had my charge disappeared and I’d sat down to read my book, than I looked up and saw the ‘NO MOBILES’ sign : what’s a girl to do?

My compromise was to hold the phone in my hand for the duration; I have to tell you, it’s not easy to read a book whilst balancing two puffa jackets, one handbag, one carrier for the book – and a mobile in the other hand, but I managed to keep the waiting room amused and/or having a private bet as to what was going to fall next…

90 minutes later, my name is called and I gather me bits and go to where Leo is sitting with a cheerful smile on his face and an impressive tube stuck into his hand, chatting away to the surgeon, a lovely change from the ‘Spirit of Agony’ his face had been for a week or so. The nurse commands my attention and gives me a ’survival kit-bag’ for ‘just-in-case’ circumstances, and explains the procedures. Having checked Leo could walk steadily, we are discharged.

Get to the lift, Leo remembers his watch, goes back – only to be reminded he’d put it on the otherwrist! Relief! Downstairs, I check if he’s really feeling steady : we have money for a cab, but no, he says – it’s just one bus journey, he’ll be fine. Standing at the bus stop, he gets in a panic – they’ve given him medication, he’s left it behind… I reassure him, they gave ME the stuff, and look, it’s all here in the bag!

Bus arrives, packed to the gunwales : I check – stand all the way home, or shall we wait for the next one? Leo’s happy to stand, and I privately calculate that even if wooziness does return, he’ll have absolutely no chance of finding enough space to fall to the floor, so we board. Maybe just as a talking point, he wonders why the hospital insists on having an escort in attendance, so I remind him of the watch, and his medication, never mind the possibility of a sudden nausea; having spent all the time and money on the surgery, they don’t want a patient buckling under the wheels of a bus moments later, for want of an escort who can guide their charge!

Next day, I miss him before he goes off on the van, so I can only check at lunch: DID he remember the salt wash after breakfast, as I explained last night? “Er, yes thank you, mumma, I was a good boy!” he grins, and I cluck like the mother hen I become in such conditions.

I managed to do stacks of seed sowing at last : sprouts, peppers, cabbage, broad beans etc., and a 5-second visit to the allotment to reassure myself the onions made it through the snow, which they have.  The spring bulbs all seem to double in size daily, and should be producing a cheerful front-of-house display pretty soon, thanks to Betty, their generous donor.  Up at the Horticultural Hut today, a lady at the counter tried to interest me in a very pretty basket of hyacinths, but I explained that lovely as they were, I had no budget for them;  Betty explained about Emmaus, whilst the lady was fiddling, then handed some money to the till lady and said, “there, you have them, I’ll pay for them!”  Aren’t people kind? 

I think that’s a sufficiently ‘up’ note on which to finish.

Take care, Elizabeth

Apologies for my absence last week, but having boasted that I missed out on ‘Holiday-itis’ this time, of course I went down with a very heavy cold for three days and only recovered in time to find we were snowed in on Monday.  It was SO thick here we couldn’t even attempt to get the van out of the car park, having watched a 4×4 Chelsea Tractor give up the attempt to get out of its spot!  We kept the shops and warehouse closed on Monday too, spending the time on Thorough Cleaning.

It had cleared enough by Thursday to be able to deliver some of the latest Newsletter.  If you haven’t seen a copy yet, do call in at the shops for it.  Volunteer David put in a tremendously good effort once again, and it has received generous and well-deserved praise in general, and in particular, that of the best kind - enquiries from potential advertisers!

So, off I trot with trolley of Newsletters and new Companion Billy (to whom belated welcome!) and round we go with them.  Coming back down the tiled path of a Victorian house I meet an icy patch, slide gracefully (?) into the gate, and quickly reach out left foot to balance myself.   Continue delivering for a couple of hours, get home, find it somewhat tricky getting my boot off, but it’s made easier by the fact that there’s just time to make a cup of tea before the evening meal.

Around 10pm I go up to my room and remove some of my layers of clothing - socks over thick woolly tights.  Half an hour after that, I am in The Most Exquisite and Absolute Agony, and my ankle resembles a balloon.   I lob some paracetamol down my throat, hop downstairs, get a tea-towel and go to the front door for a load of ice.  Back in my room, I put the ice in my waste bin, and wrap the icy tea towel round my ankle, topped with a plastic bag, and then put my foot on a cushion.  Once the tablets kicked in I could sleep a bit. 

By 8am I had run out of paracetamol, but text the helpline and get the Community Leader’s 5-Star Care Service - a bottle of tablets, a cup of tea, and a plate of toast and marmalade!  An hour later, Chris nobly offers to take me down to Kings to ensure nothing is broken…
Marvellous service! 

I was in luck at the hospital - I was seen within 15 minutes, X’ray’d 1/2 hour later, and had the results within another 20 minutes :  doleful news - I have so much arthritis in my foot, they can’t see if it’s cracked or not.  However, my ‘RICE’ (Rest, Ice, Elevation) and painkillers (maybe it should be ‘PRICE?’ ) is the only answer they can offer, but I’m off to their Small Injuries Clinic tomorrow.

So one way and another, as you can imagine, I’m afraid the only news of the allotment this time is that there is no news - but pleased to report my cold didn’t spread too much, and the others have all kept well!

I trust you have all been keeping clear of germs and slips.

Best wishes,
Elizabeth