Getting closer to Christmas

I drove up in the rain today to see mum and called my brother on the iPad. He didn't answer at first, but then after I had tried once and left the room to wait for mum to use the toilet, he called and I heard the machine pinging. So we got on the screen and I lay down on the bed because I was feeling tired. I have been having pains in the left kidney in the early mornings, and the pain is inhibiting my sleep to a certain degree.

Mum has been well recently, at least since her last hospital admission last month. She was quite attentive while on the iPad today, for a change, and was able to keep the device upright for quite some time - at least ten or fifteen minutes - before the weight of it and the length of the conversation became too much, and she eventually dropped her head onto her chest and closed her eyes.

I talked about the scientific revolution with my brother. He's a techie and has been into electronics from a very young age, so he's always interested in science and the history of science. I told him about Lucretius' famous epicurian poem On the Nature of Things and how the poem was unearthed during the Renaissance by a book hunter named Bracciolini. We also talked about the novel and early science fiction, and I introduced him to Cyrano de Bergerac's little-known science fiction novel Voyage dans la lune, which came out in the mid 17th century. It was a fun conversation but unfortunately it outdid mum's patience in the end. The photo shows her while she is still coping with the length of the conversation. The photo was taken using the iPhone from her bed, where I was lying down.

I only stayed in the nursing home for about an hour today but I didn't take mum outside to the park because it was raining. I came home in the rain. I had lunch of a pork roll bought in Epping before I got to the nursing home. They make good pork rolls up at the bakery above the train station.