My first Christmas in the country since I was a child produced two delightful surprises. First one was on Christmas Eve, I had woken up to a painful, puffy eye, the long-term consequences of Tamoxifen treatment which sometimes returns, and had chosen that day to remind me it’s still there. The nearest A & E was miles away, so I phoned my new GP’s surgery to leave a message to be picked up after the break, resigning myself to living on pain-killers over Christmas.
A human being a answered, assured me my doctor would call me back – and he did! The surgery was open for business, on Christmas Eve. Not only that, but my doctor knew all about the type of eye problem I was having, and knowing the problems I have not driving, said he would deliver antibiotics and eye drops to me later that evening – and he did. The medicine worked its magic, and the pain has gone.
On Christmas Day the tree stood over a pile of presents, which normally would be wrapped in shiny papers, but the family are in to recycling, and one niece had chosen to wrap her presents in recyclable brown paper, tied with thin red ribbon with rosemary and bay leaves tucked under the bows. I can’t tell you how incredibly elegant and festive this looked, and the herbs decorating the parcels took one right back to a Victorian Christmas.
Then I had a ‘light bulb’ moment, and collected up all the expensive ribbon used on some of the presents, to make bows for decorating the Tombola on April 12th for the Wellness Day I am organising – no need to buy bunting and decorations!