steelcityman

TOO MUCH WATER ??, IT’S BEEN A FLOOD !!! …………. November 6th 2022

HELLO again… Just in case you’ve forgotten me, I’m the steelcityman, AKA, Patrick. Welcome to my WordPress Blog. Even though I’ve been absent since last May, I have been keeping up with the blogs I follow, I just haven’t had the motivation to write anything myself. Anyone who follows my blog will instantly realise that this is nothing new ! I can hear you saying, “Ok, here we go again, with an appology and a promise to do better.” Well…you’re half right if you think that. The half bit you got right is the apology, it has been remiss of me to ignore the blog for this length of time and I regret not being productive with words. Like I said, “Too much water has gone under the bridge.” I think I just got swept away with the flood and that took my motivation with it.

The first thing that happened was 2020 when my wife Christine started being ill with heart problems. She had had a weakened heart since she contracted rheumatic fever as a young lass, and of course, that only gets worse as you get older. So it transpired that after years of Christine looking after me and my heart conditions, roles were reversed and I became the carer when she came home from the hospital. As we sped into 2021, it became clear that Christine was very ill indeed and she finished up in the hospital again where it was said, the doctors could do nothing to help her, so they were going to discharge her and send her home to die. As the hospital tried to put together a palliative care program for her Christine’s health deteriorated to such an extent, that moving her would be her undoing. So there she remained until the 2nd of December when she passed away peacefully. I was getting ready to visit her when I had the dreaded phone call informing me that she had passed, so I missed being with her by about 30 minutes. As it happened, My Son and Daughter were with her to hold her hand as she breathed her last. I’ll be eternally grateful to my children for being with Christine at the end, and I’m still kicking myself for not being there……. So we gave her a good send-off in January last year and that is the main reason for my not posting until now. 11 months after her death….. We just made our Golden Wedding Anniversary. 50 years married, and I feel lost without my soul mate.

It has been difficult writing this, but at the same time quite cathartic, and I feel it has helped me somewhat in helping me find some solace in my memories, of which there are many. Another part of my life has changed drastically in recent months. I was living at a Supported Housing scheme in SHEFFIELD, South Yorkshire, and as I was getting older and creaking much more, I managed to obtain a flat in another Supported Housing Scheme in LEEDS West Yorkshire … Just around the corner from my Daughter’s home. I needed the extra support of family and it fit the bill just right. I’m sure anyone that has moved house will recognize how stressful it is. It is especially so when you are not fit enough to do much yourself and have to rely on family and friends to do the donkey work for you! Very frustrating indeed, especially when you are still 19 years old in your head !! Anyway, thanks to my son, daughter, and families, my sister, and brother in law and friends in Sheffield, I was packed up ready to go, the new flat was cleaned and decorated before I moved in and I was ready to move house ( I did not realize how much ‘stuff’ we had accumulated over the years, I bet the bin men were cursing me !!

Anyway, as you can see from the photo on the lower right of the page, it is a block of four flats, mine is the ground floor left, with a nice front porch, gas central heating and a wet room to boot. The washing and drying (clothing) facilities are communal and free to use. Very nice. All the maintenance is in with the rent, care of the gardens, window cleaning (outside only) and it is cheaper rent than the other place I lived in Sheffield, and, we don’t have to pay for any repairs to the place …Win-Win. There is a very nice communal lounge (below left) in the complex, clean, comfortable, and very homely. Unfortunately, the recent Covid Pandemic has put everyone off using it and the social side of living here is going to take some starting again.

One more unfortunate event before I drift off onto another subject is that my mobility scooter, which was too large to get into the flat at night, was stolen by the local small-minded Mafia family. A mob of young teenagers. I know they were young teenagers because the police came and told me it had been recovered, and My daughter ran me to the location where it had been found only to find it had been hot-wired and trashed in the process. I managed to arrange transport to get it home and arranged an engineer to come out to look at it for the cost of the repair ( the insurance refused to pay out !!) Anyway whilst waiting for the recovery truck to arrive, an extremely scruffy individual turned up and started to mess about with the wiring of the scooter.I got out of the car and approached him, asked what he was doing, and he said he had come back for his scooter !!! When I said it was mine and told him to **** off, he had the nerve to demand proof that it was mine !! Of course at 74 years old, as much as I wanted to, I could not reach for him…he was far too fast … Eventually, he started to threaten me and my daughter and then ran off. It irks me that I know it was him that stole it because he told me so, but without any proof, my word against his only, the police, though they knew the reprobate, wouldn’t even question him without video evidence of him stealing it … well, I resigned myself to not getting any joy out of the cops and went home with my trashed scooter, chained it up and went indoors for the night. I couldn’t bring myself to look at it after the insurance refused to pay out.. again… But … the following night it was stolen again !!! This time not recovered. So, for now, at least, I’m not going to replace it. It would only get stolen again and I can do without the Hassle of confronting the barstewards who are nicking scooters. I would probably end up doing time for jabbing them with a pointy stick, multiple times (which incidentally, I would be happy to do)

Take care Peeps. hope to see more of you. Please like and leave a comment, subscribe even, it will help the blog grow