Recovery Day Two

Posted on 2008/07/22 17:11:50 (July 2008).

[Monday 21st July]
Chie had booked today off work, having not known prior to the operation how well I was likely to be able to cope on my own. As it happens by today I probably was more or less OK to be left alone by myself, but obviously it was nice to have the company.

I woke up early again this morning - before 7 - and couldn't get back to sleep again.

Charity has been weighing on my mind somewhat recently - it had occurred to me I am relatively comfortably off at the moment, and yet have been very selfish with my money. It all either goes in the bank, or gets spent on enjoying ourselves (largely on extravagant food and drink). This would not do.

I recently watched a program about Islam where they mentioned the concept of Zakat. The modern interpretation of this seems to be that every Muslim should give 2.5% of their income to the poor and needy. I rather liked the sound of this, particularly that they were bold enough to stipulate a specific figure, so I decided I would adopt this custom. So this morning I set about looking for worthy causes to donate some of my income to on a regular basis. No big surprises really - I just divided up the cash between four well known charities - Oxfam, Cancer Research, Save the Children and Amnesty. Of course, I am always a bit concerned with some of these bigger and more well established organisations about how much of the money just gets swallowed up in the organisation itself, rather than actually going to the people they are trying to help, but then I suppose you have to just take that on good faith. Even if only half the money ends up feeding starving children etc, I guess that is still a lot better than nothing.

All that altruism tired me out, and by around 11 I decided I should go back to bed for a late morning nap. I woke up in time to have lunch with Chie (we had instant ramen) before she headed out for the afternoon, to get her hair cut and do a spot of shopping. I was then faced with the first significant chunk of time spent alone since I've had my operation, and blimey it was tedious. I still wasn't really up to any singificant computer use, so instead just slobbed out in front of the telly, and with the exception of a couple of Keith Floyd cookery programs I can report that daytime TV is just as awful as it always has been.

Chie got back just after 5, and I thought I should probably go out for my daily walk then, as recommended by the nurse. I think I've definitely improved on yesterday - I was able to walk a bit further (albeit still just round the gardens) and it was less of a strain, but steps were definitely still a bit of a challenge.

For dinner we decided to order in Chinese takeaway, and in the evening we attempted to watch Kagemusha, although I didn't quite make it through to the end before deciding on an early night.

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