Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2015-12-25 08:56:46 - Graham Ellis
We could all look back and say "my life changed that day" to certain days. Some of those days, we know, are going to be lifechanging, others we might guess at ahead of time, and some come as a complete surprise. Such a surpise came to me in that day - those 24 hours - a day in early August. One evening I started "right as rain" ... by the next morning, I couldn't left my head without being "seasick" and I couldn't hear out of one ear.
Since then, I have fought back - I'm back to 90% of what I was, and I'm still working on getting back bits of that remaining 10%. I'm permanently (they think) and totally deaf in the right ear. I have a very limited sense of balance. And that means that I have to have lights on to walk around, I stagger around as if I'm under the influence of something, I find it very hard to hear what's being said in company, I don't know who's talking to me in a group. And I tire oh so easily. So - two things; please forgive me not being on the front line with rail platform surveys any more, and please excuse me when I can't drive long distances. And a big "thank you" to those who have taken the slack, have helped me through, and have been patient at my inability to get as much done as I could / to have the quality time to do some things that need quality when, frustrating for you I know, I can apparently faff around with other things of less priority which, however, need less "full attention". But enough of this "wallow" ... and yes - I'm very much aware of how fortunate I am to be making this great a comaback, and how my situation is trivial compared to others.
We have a superb team at work - who have admirably confirmed their ability to run Well House Manor without more than the occasional very gentle guidance from me. Still No. 1 of 14 accommodations in Melksham on Trip Advisor, and it's very much harder to remain at the top than get there in the first place. On the IT training side, come late September I was able to get back to delivering training, and I've been doing so pretty much every week up until - well - Monday and Tuesday of this week in the lead up to Christmas.
On the "transport side", so much has happened. In some ways I say "sorry I've not been around as much as I would like", yet in putting together a fresh set of banner pictures for the Coffee Shop forum, I've got a series of 141 pictures - that represnets one per day since things changed - each of which has a story. So I've not exactly been totally absent!
