Friday 28 January 2022

A Postcard A Day - Friday 28 January 2022 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies, 

Well, when you read this I will probably be on a flight to the Netherlands. I'm writing this on Thursday and I will schedule this, and will try to link with Annie at A Stitch In Time from my mobile. I hope that works out.

I got a message from my sister that my mum had had a fall. She is in hospital, but hasn't broken anything. She got a bit of a shock and is breathless. They are keeping her in hospital until her breathing stabilizes and she's had some physiotherapy to get out of bed again. Mum is 97 so I'm not taking any chances.  I have booked a flight and will be on my way, God willing, when you read this. The fall happened hours before my sister, who is visiting, was due to fly back to England. Needless to say, she has canceled her flight.


Of course I have a postcard for you:
It is a Royal Canadian Club Soda bottle label from 1930. The card was sent to me by Claire from Canada. She writes that she is a trained pastry and bread chef and is into all things sourdough. She mentioned the natural disaster in the Vancouver area. (Storm, flooding and landslides etc)

Here are the stamps. It's only the one actually. The little one on the left. The one on the right is part of the card. But it is the most interesting. Ever heard of Banting, Best and Marjorie?

Banting and Best (doctors) and (dog) Marjorie. Banting and Best are Canadians who discovered insulin nearly one hundred years ago.

In 1921, Frederick Banting was a young doctor with an idea: could the mysterious secretions of the pancreas be used to treat diabetes? We now call this substance insulin, and its life-saving discovery was an impactful milestone in medical science.
Banting and his assistant, Charles Best, worked together in a small lab to test the theory with street dogs. Banting formed a special bond with one of his test dogs and gave her a name: Marjorie. After Marjorie responded well to insulin treatments, the treatments went on to be used for humans with diabetes--and the results were deemed practically miraculous.

There is a short video explaining what they did:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkwih3yfCVA

Fascinating stuff.

Hubby had an appointment with the surgeon on Friday. The scan he had at the beginning of January was inconclusive and he has to do another one. Then he will be referred back to the oncologist for some radio therapy and after that hopefully the surgeon will be happy to operate.
As we were in town, we stopped by the plumber's merchant to get some plumbing 'bits' and also buy some bags of salt for our soft water system.
My sister is visiting my mum and we could talk on Facetime.

Saturday I spent baking and cooking, and in the evening I lead Intercambio, a group of people that want to practice their language skills. (Spanish/English). We were: two Dutch, two English and two Spanish.

On Sunday we went to church and in the evening we went to a worship evening where we played and sang (I did too).  When we got home another Facetime chat with my mother and sister.
Monday was cold and dreary. Not typical Spanish weather, but we do get this sometimes.

On Tuesday we had our friends over for dinner and Spanish lesson, when I got a call from my sister that mum had fallen.
I went to the gym on Wednesday morning and kept contact with my sister as mum is still in hospital. I went to my friend Antonia and we prayed together (we do this once a week). On the way back from her, I collected the mail from the post office. There must have been ten cards if not more.
At 2 pm we met a friend for lunch at our favorite restaurant. I heard from my sister that mum is still in hospital and is not really doing well yet, so I booked the flight to go over. Most flights were morning flights and as we live three and a half hours from the nearest airport, and they like you to be there two hours before, that would mean leaving at 2:30 to get there by 7. I wasn't too keen on that, so I eventually managed to find a flight at 11:15. Still an early start but not that bad.

That is it from me this week. I will try and visit you from my mother's house. 
Have a lovely weekend,
Keep smiling,
Hugs,
Lisca





















9 comments:

  1. I hope all is well with your mom Lisca. It was lucky your sister was there when it happened. That is a really interesting stamp and I am glad that someone who discovered such a life needed hormone like insulin is honored with a stamp after all these years. Thinking of you with your mom and with your husband too. hugs-Erika

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  2. Best wishes to your Mum. It must be so scary to live alone, fall and lie for hours. Ingo found his Grandma twice like that.

    Oh! No, I didn´t know about the Insulin-discoverer! Must send this to my Niece, she is 11 and suffers diabetis1 since years. Well, actually. Thanks to those two she does very well!
    You pushed and took a pic? ;-) "happy life" is a great title for the day!
    I could never train with mask on. Glad I found a way to train at home.

    Ha. Dog poop in baggies. Here shoes find the poop, I lost two pairs already.
    The IKEA book!!! LOL.
    And the cleaning! Mask, hahaha. And the skydiving... uh-oh. They´re all funny, thank you for the smiles!

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  3. I hope your mom is feeling better by the time you arrive. It must be hard because you have a sick husband and an unwell mother. I hope your mom is better before Graham has to go for his next scan.

    I am always hungry when I visit your blog. You always have so much food. If I ate all you eat, I would waddle out of my house. No wonder you go to the gym all the time (grin).

    I really like that postcard. I like anything vintage like that. And learning about the men who invented insulin deserve more credit, because I have never heard of either of them before.

    Cute funnies. My fav was the cat (SO true) and the IKEA book. Te last one had me laughing, too. Those sister cities are fairly popular in the states, so it seemed appropriate.

    Please take care and let us know how your mom is. Also, be safe, please.

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  4. So sorry your mum had a fall. I hope she able to get the care she needs.
    We buy those sacks of salt but the ones sold locally were not good and lcked our filters with dirt so we have to drive up to Albox for a better one, and usually buy four at a tome. It is a bit hard on the car's suspension!
    You did some lovely cooking this week.
    I was interested to read about Banting, Best and Marjorie. As a diabetic I am veery grateful for the work they did.
    I hope mu is able to move around better soon, so you can get home again. Kate x

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  5. So very sorry to hear about your Mum Lisca. Sending lots of of positive vibes her way and really hope she recovers well.
    The funnies are brilliant.
    Biggest hugs for you all,
    Annie x

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  6. Hi Lisca, as I'm quite late today I am guessing....no hoping that you are well on your way by now. Hope your mum is okay, I understand how you will be feeling as I have one just a bit younger who thinks she's still a young women and it's often difficult to make them realise that they can't do the same things any more. Loving the funnies, I just don't know where you find them. Stay safe and hope everything goes well. Hugs, Angela xXx

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  7. I am so sorry to hear about your mom. Thank goodness your sister was there. With everything Graham is going through he sure looks good. You do a great job of taking care of him. I live in Oregon and have been to Boring. It is a stunningly beautiful place with about 8,000 population. Be safe on your trip.

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  8. I hope your mother is doing well and if not home yet she very soon will be. Lovely post. Found the information about the discovery of insulin very interesting. The funnies made me smile, especially the last one about Dull, Boring and Bland. Elizabeth x

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  9. So sorry to hear about your Mum, I'm so glad you managed to sort out flights, I hope she is OK and doing better and that she will be able to go home soon.

    The rest of your week is lovely, meeting friends, practising languages, receiving postcards and making fabulous food. I hope that your hubby has some better news from his next scan but I love the fact he is absolutely always smiling!

    Sending much love to you all
    xxx

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