4th August: A visit from Raina

Simon had a visit from our great-niece, two year old Raina. She is as bright as a button, and very keen to chat to Uncle Simon. She stood up on a chair beside his bed and told him all her news, also fed him with strawberries. When Simon complained of pain in his leg, Raina went to kiss it better, leaving a tell-tale strawberry mark on the blankets. Margaret and Gerry are babysitting Raina for the week, they will be exhausted.
There seems to be some improvement in the DVT, and he has been out in the chair again today for a couple of hours. We looked at his email on the computer (not the work email), and he dismissed most of the new stuff in his inbox as advertising material. He took an interest in a request to participate in a survey about Corporate Social Responsibility, and said he would fill this out tomorrow.
Later today, a colleague from Flinders who is also a JP came to witness Simon's signature on some documents. Simon managed to sign his full name with his left hand, and he understood what the documents were for.
Most encouraging is that a senior registrar is coming on Thursday to assess Simon's readiness for rehab. The physio was very upbeat and thought it possible that Simon may be able to go soon. I get conflicting stories about this, but Simon was delighted with that news.
We had some long and involved conversations today, and Simon coped with numerous visitors. He is without the breathing mask during the day now. Simon had a new number today 'zero-one-one', it doesn't make sense as binary code but could almost be the beginning of an international dialling code. The fact that he gives them as separate digits does suggest that they are not mathematical numbers (in the easy sense of those words). In fact Shirley thinks she had a conversation with him recently about not being able to get her mobile to dial the UK, perhaps he was replying to that. If that is so, then he is perhaps remembering and dealing with questions that he was asked several days ago, storing them up until he finds the answer.
Simon told me to sell the car (the Camry) and buy something more suitable. I reckon I could trade it in for a go-faster stripes whizz-bang wheelchair/go-kart.
Had a good meeting with one of my research students this morning. She is hoping to look at Employee Development/Committment in Indian Hi-tech Corporates (not call centres), and how this model fits/is derived from cultural complexity. I have a feeling that the West might be able to find some valuable lessons in this model. However, the same was thought about Japan, but only parts of that model were truly transferred (mostly technical and process). The Mumbai stock exchange hit a high today, just maybe they are doing something right (along with Sao Paolo, Shanghai and Mexico if anyone is interested in this type of thing).
We are remembering Frank Whitaker today, and the daffodils here are "fluttering and dancing in the breeze".
Love Marian xx