CROSS WORDS AND CROSSWORDS

Mick's patch has to be changed every three days. This means that I can't just say "Patch change Monday and Thursday" or anything like that because of there being 7 days in a week. I've put a little chart on the box now to remind me. The funny thing is though, in a way Mick reminds me! I can guarantee that once we get to the two day stage that Mick will start choking and sneezing. Such it was this morning; Mick was quite happily eating his porridge when suddenly on came a coughing fit. He then started sneezing; five sneezes in a row and the mucus started erupting. As I've no doubt mentioned in previous posts this really tires Mick out. His whole body wracks and it must be so frustrating for him. Now this morning between sneezes he was having a right old mumble. I couldn't tell what he was saying but I could tell by the tone that a few expletives were coming out. I'm convinced there was a "For F....'s sake" (apologies fellow bloggers) in there somewhere! Luckily the coughing finally subsided and Mick had a well earned doze.

All that sneezing and coughing resulted in a rather large overflow of his incontinence pad; (bladder and bowel) so it was a bed bath and full bed change morning. While I was at it I gave Mick a shave. Now Mick has never liked electric razors; even when he was fit he always used to prefer to have a wet shave; so that's what I do. I was a bit nervous the first time (thank goodness Mick didn't like a CUT-THROAT RAZOR shave!) but have got it down to a fine art now. I'm happy to say that so far (touch wood) I've never nicked him.

Unfortunately at lunch time (two and a half days into the patch) the coughing and choking started again. It went on for a full hour. I really wonder sometimes how Mick (and I) coped with this three or four times a day during the last six months. I must admit that in the end I gave in and put a fresh patch on him. They take about 6 hours to start taking effect so hopefully by dinner time it will be a bit easier for Mick. I know I probably shouldn't have put the new patch on early. If I keep doing it I shall run out before the next prescription is due but how can I stand by watching Mick suffering when I have the answer to hand?

Now to the "crosswords" part of the title post. As you may have seen from my profile I love doing cryptic crosswords. Mick and I would always do them together. If he wasn't working we would do one every day of the week. Mick always bought THE SUN newspaper - for the sports section he said and I must admit I never saw him linger on Page 3 for too long - well the crossword in there we found pretty pathetic and so started buying the Daily Telegraph as well (a much better read in my opinion). The only problem was we never really found the time to read two papers so decided that we would, once a year, buy the latest Daily Telegraph Cryptic Crossword Book. We have been doing this for almost 15 years now. Sadly the last book is only half done. I have tried doing it on my own or reading the clues out to Mick whilst I'm doing it but it's just not the same - and probably very frustrating for him if he's worked out the answer and can't tell me.

Now all this is leading somewhere, Honest!

I noticed when I was having a good blog surf the other night that there are quite a few blogs like "A photo a day", "A quote a day" or "A recipe a day", so I've decided to start a "Crossword Clue A Day" blog. I won't put in any clue unless I've managed to work out the answer myself; and the answer I'll put in the comments area. It will help keep my crossword ability alive and be a bit of exercise for those little grey cells.

As a preview I'll tell you the clue that Mick and I have always admired for its simplicity and cleverness.

GSGE.....................(9,4)

And if you're wondering why I'm not doing a WHOLE crossword a day blog -

Well

just how much spare time do you think I have!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've put this photo on because it reminds me of Mick

"my sunshine in the midst of a cloudy day"