30th August: Rosy knees

Spring is upon us and Simon has decided it is time to change into shorts! Having spent most of his day in the garden he has a wonderful pair of rosy red knees. We got into gardening at the weekend - more veggies: tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, and far too many chili plants. We are in a contest with our friend, Kerry, to see who can grow the first zucchini from the same seed packet - this could get more competitive than Tenantry Down Allotment Association. We are harvesting spuds and so much broccoli. I have discovered that Broccoli and Blue cheese soup is delicious, and has the added benefit of being a super-food.

Simon is working on a powerpoint that he will present to speech therapy students at Flinders University later this year. Also working on a paper with Matthew G-C on issues concerned with the preservation of archives in low-lying pacific nations. This has been a very interesting project for all of us, and Matthew is making great strides as an early career researcher.

Have just completed the first round of assessment with my Management students at Flinders. I am so pleased to see them engaging and performing well at this early stage. I love them to bits.

Will post some pictures on our Wedding Anniversary.

Love Marian xx

30th July: Onwards and upwards

Simon has been making significant progress over the last few weeks. It seems like we turned a corner at the 12 month mark, and despite all the pessimism emanating from the research data, his progress has accelerated markedly. Simon now walks regularly holding onto a fixed rail and can manage as much as 50 metres in an hour. The effort that this takes is equivalent to me walking around 5 kilometres, and as a consequence he is losing weight again. In the last two weeks, Simon has learned to stand up from his chair without holding onto the rail. He can stand and balance for around 3 minutes at a time. Once this skill is fully honed he will be able to try walking with a quad stick.

Even more progress has been made in speech therapy. While it is true that my ability to interpret is now very advanced, Simon has been able to hold detailed and complex conversations with his consultant (the wonderful Professor K) and to make and receive telephone calls. He spoke with Stephen Pantlin last week, they were both close to tears I think. Simon now regularly sends email independently, and has stepped up his ebay activity to the extent that we may need to buy a new house to store all the new CDs!

Professor K has suggested that Simon should begin planning his return to work, and recommended that he start by attending some research seminars at the University. We are hoping to arrange this soon.

Meanwhile, we continue to wait for the powered wheelchair. It has at least been ordered, but outrageously we are told that we may have to wait until Christmas for delivery. I know that it is possible to telephone the manufacturers in the USA and have the chair custom-built and shipped within two weeks, but government departments don't work like that. Ho hummm.... It would be pleasingly ironic if Simon were to be walking independently by the time his chair arrived.

We did get given a new powered bed for Simon - we can raise it up and down, lift the head rest to a near sitting position etc. This is much more comfortable for him, although a bit odd with both of us in adjoining single beds. I feel the cold without him. I have tried to persuade Skippy to sleep on my feet to warm them up, but he prefers to sleep on Simon's tummy.

Heard some rumour about Beckham joining West Ham. Oh yeah....

Love Marian x

July 5th: 365 days

We are exactly one year into Simon's journey. I take a deep breath and hold back some tears. I remember the terrible things that were happening that night a year ago, the confusion, darkness, pain, fear, hopelessness. What if I had lost him? When I saw him this time a year ago he was covered in tubes and wires and a priest was standing over him. We have come a long way.

Simon was at the rehab clinic today and I was at work so we did not get to mark the day, but tomorrow we will. Simon will have lunch with Jeremy from the Royal Society for the Blind - Jeremy helps Simon to find his way around the town in his wheelchair and they sneak into the pub quite often, I think. Tomorrow evening, my family are gathering at our house for a pizza extravaganza (take-away). We will celebrate Simon's survival and our future.

In the last year I have learned more than I was ever taught or self-taught, and come closer to Socratic truth than was comfortable. The one true thing that I know... I love Simon.

Love Marian xx

19th June: Hello again

It has been a long time since I found my way to this blog, sorry guys. Have been very busy juggling work, home, and Simon's therapies. Today finds me up at an early hour having watched the England match at 4am.

Simon continues with rehab therapy. He travels twice a week to Fullarton for physio, and has speech therapy at home. We are still waiting for a powered wheelchair, although there is some hope that this might happen soon. I was unable to buy this independently. We have had many ups and downs: a couple of falls, pressure sores, and the inevitable depression. On the upside, Simon's speech is really improved, and he has recently made good progress in physio. This week he walked 6 lengths of the parallel bars in the gym (around 60 metres in total). He has also been cooking 2-3 times per week using a slow cooker and lots of chili!

Simon has rediscovered E-bay and has successfully bid on around a dozen CDs. He has also worked out how to download music again. Music has been a lifebelt for us. We managed to go to a concert two weeks ago. A local band, the Yearlings, were playing in McLaren Vale in an old converted church. It was a bring your own grub arrangement. Simon and I turned up with fish and chips in newspaper - everyone else had delicate platters and canapes!

We have had plenty of rain which is good for our veggies. My spuds are up, and the greens are nearly ready. We have grown some wicked, blow-your-socks-off radishes and some rather pathetic beans. I have a constant battle with pests and insects and can often be found hunting caterpillars by moonlight. I found a tip in an old gardening book which advised placing fake plastic butterflies amongst the brassicas to deter the cabbage white butterfly. I spent several hours manufacturing plastic butterflies from old margarine tubs only to discover that they attract the blighters!

Simon's speech therapist is helping him to learn to use his mobile phone. We are planning to go to Noarlunga next week to buy a phone with a full keyboard so that he can text more easily. If you receive odd messages, you might expect them to be from Simon. Apologies to Aidan who regularly gets phoned by accident being first in the address book. By the way, congrats to Aidan on qualifying for his bus pass.

Skippy is as canny as ever. He has our care assistants wrapped around his little paw persuading them that he hasn't been fed for a week and desperately needs an ear rub. It has been cold here and he is a master at finding the warmest places to sleep; we could patent him as an organic heat seeking device. To his credit, the mice have disappeared (there may have been some RatSak involved).

My sister, Margaret, has been having a battle with skin cancer on her face. She has been very stoic about it, but it is a rotten thing. Last night the two of us went out to dinner together for the first time in years. It was really nice. Inevitably we ended up reminiscing about our complicated upbringing . There are only two people in this world that I have truly hated. The other one was Margaret Thatcher.

Thanks to everyone who has kept in touch through the blog and on email. Again, my apologies for being such a slug with the blog. I know that my family in England have been through some difficult times with the passing of our dear Aunt Jean. We have been thinking of you all.

I pick Greece to win the World Cup - who will bet me a dollar? Am even prepared to double it up on West Ham winning an away fixture next season....

Love Marian x

28th April: An independent journey

Today we passed a great milestone. At 9am, Simon went out in the powered wheelchair and travelled a kilometre by himself reaching a cafe on the Main Street of McLaren Vale. It was nerve wracking, but he has done it. We are so grateful to Jeremy from the Royal Society of the Blind who has been training Simon to use the chair and is so inspiring. We are now trying to buy the right powered chair for Simon so that he will be more comfortable and safer. The occupational therapist came to our house today and has promised to help us to find the right equipment. We gave up on government funding for this. I know that some of you were thinking of getting up a fund to help with this, in which case, now is the time.

Have discovered the 'cheap Tuesday' deal at the local video store and scored some cracking movies: The Damned United is superb for anyone who remembers the legendary Brian Clough and understands English football. I was taken back decades and reminded of the comforts and deprivations of those times. We also saw Inglorious Basterds (that is how they spell it). A tad violent for me, but Simon thought it was brilliant. Now he wants to see Avatar (anyone seen that?).

I was interviewed today by a colleague conducting research into Work Integrated Learning. I found myself quickly embroiled in the Humboldt / Newman stuff about what a University is for. Sometimes I swear Tom Bourner is sitting on my shoulder. Hope so.

Love Marian x

17th April: Simon is home

Just a quick update today. Simon discharged himself from the hospital yesterday, he could take no more. He is home and happy. The next week is a bit challenging because we have no physio or carer support but I can do some work with him and hope it will be enough to keep him ticking over.

Love Marian x

15th April: A mouse in the house

Simon is still in the rehab hospital and is deeply unhappy there. It is not quite the boot camp that we were promised, just three hours of therapy per week day and very little at weekends. It is terribly boring for him the rest of the time. The highlight of his week was when I sneaked in a cornish pastie. I will take him to Glenelg on Sunday afternoon for a spot of CD shopping, he has compiled a long list of must-haves. We have another public holiday (ANZAC day) on 26th April, and he has resolved to discharge himself from the hospital that weekend. We have stuck it out because the Professor has insisted and we need her support, but enough is enough.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch I am besieged by mice. What is Professor Skippy Orlando doing about this? Sleeping. What a slouch. Ironically, the mouse living in the pantry has a real liking for cat biscuits.

Simon's veggie patch is in full bloom - here you can see the 'dwarf' beans after just 14 days. It will be about four weeks before we are eating the produce. I did calculate that this project was costing about $20 per kilo of veg produced, but there's nothing like the taste of home-grown produce. I once had an allotment in Brighton which, despite having only four inches of top soil over chalk, produced an enormous glut each year. I can still remember my colleagues running down the corridor at the sight of me trying to give away surplus marrows.

Have had a conference paper accepted and quite pleased about that. It is local, so no need for travel. Am still thinking about Beijing. I could probably arrange for a carer to be with Simon for a few days but I don't like the idea of being so far apart. Sometimes I wish we were in England, especially now that spring is there and winter will soon be here.

Had a close shave on the road last week. Driving back from the hospital in the dark a roo jumped out in front of me. I swerved and missed him but the girl in the car behind me hit him. He was a big chap. I stopped to assist her, she had a little boy in the back seat and was very upset. The police came, threw a rope around the roo and dragged it off to the side of the road. They just left it there and told us to get on our way. I've resolved not to drive in the dark anymore.

We heard about the UK elections. Simon and I are sending in a request for overseas postal votes. Not sure if we will be in time, but with luck we will send two votes. Wouldn't it be something if we tipped the balance? I voted for the first time in Australia recently. These were state parliament and some commonwealth seats. They use proportional representation and the ballot paper was about two foot long. I can remember as a student having to debate the pros and cons of PR, but I don't remember any academic mentioning the practical problems with very long ballot papers. When asked to rank 47 candidates, eventually you lose count, make mistakes, and your pencil runs out of lead. You can alternatively just tick a box for a 'ticket' - which means that you vote for all of the labor (correct spelling in Australia) or liberal candidates etc. Personally, I don't favour this. It can result in the Harvey Proctor scenario (Basildon under Thatcher). So, if any of you are teaching government and politics these days, you might like to add that observation to your lecture notes.

On an academic note, I want to know if anyone out there has experience of using blogs, wikis, on-line social network sites etc. as sources of research data, and how do you persuade research ethics committees that this is an acceptable form of data collection. Pucker academic references would be much appreciated.

Love Marian x