Absence

[Image description: writer sitting in a Viennese garden-restaurant]

Readers, I am so sorry for my long absence. This year has been very difficult for me health-wise. I was even too ill to take my usual extended winter-break in Andalusia.

I have just returned from a week-long sojourn in Vienna, my most favourite city on the planet. The day-time temperature exceeded thirty degrees Celsius (eighty-six Fahrenheit) every day and did not drop below twenty-six (seventy-nine Fahrenheit) during the sultry nights. Whilst the heat was not conducive to slumber, it was a boon to my arthritic bones. Mostly I only suffered pain in various parts of my spine. The rest of my regular pains simply dissipated. Whilst I was forced to use my wheelchair on some days, I was able to do extended walking on others - don’t tell my specialist as I am not supposed to exceed one hundred metres (one hundred and ten yards) per day!

Now I am back in Manchester, where it has rained every day for the past three weeks or so. The dampness immediately percolated into my bones. As I type I am on my maximum dosages of pain-killers. The pain is excruciating. My muscles are permanently spasming and my limbs will not cease shaking. I am typing so as to attempt to take my mind off matters.

Whilst in the Austrian capital, I visited several good eateries, the Kunsthistorisches Museum and also Belvedere, a thermal-spa and of course the high-light, the EUROPRIDE parade. All of these I hope to blog about, if I can hold onto my clear-headedness.