5th April 2012

I’ve done too much. Far too much. And now I feel really ill with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I’ve been rather too busy all week and today was the tipping point as I needed to sort out a couple of quite minor jobs. Even the slightest measure of stress when I’m like this is more than I can cope with. All I’ve really done today is take my motorhome for it’s MOT and service, which was fine as it just needed replacement windscreen wipers. And also sort out the insurance renewals for my home and both my vehicles. That’s a cracking good bill every April! Especially as I have both MOT’s plus annual servicing and road tax to pay as well. It’s funny how when we were raising our four children, and even though I was in a well-paid job as a Financial Adviser, our income stream never seemed to quite stretch to our perceived needs. The last thing I have any concerns for at the moment, though, is money. That really would be the straw that broke the camel’s back. I actually have no real concerns. I’m just ill. But determined to persevere in making a recovery; travel and sunshine usually does the trick, though last week’s break was just not long enough to compensate for the long journey.

Actually, I have fairly simple needs so my pension goes a very long way nowadays. If Jane were around we’d no doubt be chasing off across the continent or even further by now. She most recently talked about South America, though I never quite tuned into that one. I loved driving across France and that’s where my picture was taken. I seem to remember it as in St Jean de Monts on the Atlantic Coast, and given the length of my hair today Jane would have whisked me straight into Stephie’s Atelier Coiffure pour hommes et femmes! Oh dear, my linguistic skills are somewhat less than at schoolboy level, but somehow with lots of sign language and a big smile we always got by. We regularly got lost on long cross country journeys as we had no sat-nav and avoided toll roads in order to experience the country. Jane loved to drive the motorhome even though it scared her at times… I’ll never forget the day she was overtaking a fuel tanker on a two lane duel carriageway somewhere in central France. As we drew level with the lorry the turbulence suddenly moved us sideways and she just burst into tears… at a quite legal 80 mph that gave me pause for thought I’ll tell you. But she gripped the steering wheel a little more tightly and persevered, stubbornly refusing to take a break for another 60 miles or so. She was a fighter and never gave in to any challenge.

I felt quite terrible when I sat down to write this, the first time I even gave up, but as I’m finishing I feel much better. So now, in the words of the great Bilbo Baggins (Lord of the Rings), ‘I think I’m… quite ready for another adventure!’

2 Timothy 1:7 ^‘For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.’ (NLT)