OK. So, Sunday went pretty much as usual. I managed. After lunch we watched the newly restored and remastered Metropolis that I picked up last Monday...

Wow. Multi-layered, complex and incredibly subversive in places. We loved it!

Monday... heh. I'd been so focused on making myself walk without staggering too much I hadn't taken into account that the taxi would be moving. The meds handle any nausea (haven't experienced any since Tuesday night, fortunately), so that wasn't a problem, but oh, it felt very very peculiar. They sent one of those big, multi-person cars too, the sort you have to grab onto handles and climb into. Not easy.

But we got there, even though I had to hurry into reception so I could sit down and stop the world spinning. The appointment went fairly smoothly, although there was a delay with getting the washed platelets to the day unit. Kai used the time to catch up on sleep, and I wrote a story I'd promised a friend a couple of months ago but hadn't been struck by the setting inspiration until last week. (Typed it up when we got home, and she likes it very much, so that's good.)

We headed back about three, and the taxi ride home was even weirder than the one in. My head was insisting I was floating - as in, no gravity - while my body was saying "don't be so bloody stupid, you can feel every turn and bump in the road..." Again, no nausea, but I found I was looking further. Hm. Normally I (we? I'm sure other people do it) focus on the things in the immediate vicinity - the other road users, the road itself, the people and buildings alongside the road. I assume it's a hangover from driving, even though I haven't driven in twenty years. But on that trip I found myself looking at the spaces and angles between the buildings, looking down roads and lanes to see the vistas beyond. And colours were... more distinct, more intense than normal. The mounds of moss on the hillside at Arno's Vale cemetery were jewelled, and where the buckthorn is just coming into flower the trees are covered in stars.

Bizarre but beautiful. I've never taken LSD (given my deep desire to fly I was always afraid I'd try leaping off something high and damaging myself) but I assume the effect would be similar. I have no idea what caused it - maybe because after a couple of days of only taking half the dose of the meds I took a full one to make sure I could cope with the trip? Maybe because I've been stuck in the house for nearly a week, when I would normally be ought and about at least once a day, if only to get shopping? Whatever caused it it was positively inspiring!

Kai was very tired when we got back - piriton always does that - so flopped on the sofa and watched 2001. 1968! Ye gods I'd forgotten it was so old... We seem to be working our way through the classic s-f collection at the moment. We already have When Worlds Collide, War of the Worlds (both versions), The Time Machine (both versions), The Day the Earth Stood Still (both versions): I need to get Forbidden Planet and Things to Come... In fact...

(Ten minutes later) OK, ordered from amazon at very good prices, along with This Island Earth - not such a classic but they had it cheap.

OK readers, what are we missing? Suggestions as to other s-f classics welcome!

Where was I? Oh yes. Kai enjoyed it, except for the self-indulgent and pretty incomprehensible ending (and to my shame I can't remember how the book ends to explain it, so will have to look that out and remind myself. Kai might like to read it himself). I do enjoy our film-watching sessions - it's great to discuss them afterwards.

The weather is glorious today. When we've had lunch we're heading gardenwards: Kai says he'll plant for me while I oversee. We have the dianthus' and irises, thyme and rosemary and the rest of the lavenders for the slope, and I've just been given a pretty little narcissus from one of my APAG colleagues (I have been really touched and surprised by how kind everyone is. I've had cupcakes and tulips, the plant and lots of offers of help. I'm not used to it! It's lovely to know that people care.)

The fresh air and exercise will be good for us both.

Labels: films, friends, medical matters, strangeness and charm