Robust Health 15 3 24 (15) 25 1 20

At the risk of tempting providence, pushing my luck or whatever expression is appropriate in these circumstances, I do feel upbeat at this moment and there are a few good reasons to talk about it though I would hate to give the impression I wish to crow about it, which is to say talk immodestly on the subject for I am well aware it may change for the worse at any time...

My first reason is the fact that I have had another visitor who gave a figure in excess of 200 page hits: 217 page hits 15 2 21 and now 206 hits 15 3 21 with a 40 page hit in between 15 3 10...possibly all the same person returning..?

But I have just returned home after giving blood for my regular check-up and there was a new pretty nurse in attendance that came out of her laboratory to say my name by way of invitation and I could tell she knew already from my name I was not a regular Scandinavian. So to put her at her ease in the local vernacular I noted that she was new here whereas I was a regular visitor, proceeding to follow this up by telling her I would tell her the only joke I know to suit the present situation, rolling up my left shirt sleeve as I continued "dark beer in this arm light beer in the other" which brought a small smile to her lips as she for her part proceeded to insert a new needle into her syringe and apply the anaesthetic swab to the area of the prominent vein which resulted from her tourniquet applied to my upper arm. Well she perfected the operation without my feeling a thing and away I went thanking my blessings and complimenting myself upon the way the proceedings had unfolded...

For a seriously old person who has recovered some of his earlier good short-term memory this example may or may not appeal to many of my readership, but it is perhaps trite enough to exemplify the bigger point that nowadays we are living longer and longer and sometimes we get to ask ourselves have we a right to expect it to be so..?

My mother is in large measure to blame for much of what I am saying in this blog for she was always young beyond her years as my father-in-law born in the same year always made a point of telling her and that particular gene, the one responsible for keeping her skin safe from the effects of aging is something I got to inherit, if not by my older brother who got instead her prematurely white hair, my still dark hair happily coming from someone else in the family, possibly her father who still had dark hair well into his eighties..?       

But the week after next will mark the 13^th anniversary of the day I had my heart attack, not a small affair but a big one which turned my life around, resulting in my stopping smoking changing my diet and, with all my new parts after bypass surgery, gaining a fitness I hadn't experienced for years before… And one fine day in the supermarket meeting with a former colleague who had undergone similar experiences hearing about a white-haired old guy whose hair returned to its former darker colour after his bypass surgery. So there you have it: spring is in the air again and, hey, why not feel upbeat for a change and thank one’s lucky stars for life not being all doom and gloom! As I hope you get to feel upbeat about the life in your neck of the woods this March day when in the northern hemisphere at least we get to move the clocks back for another six months of more light than dark with the birds that have arrived already singing as they rejoice at their good fortune too..?