Louise and Jeanne: The Antipodes of Moulin Rouge | Victorian Paris

With nearly 600,000 visitors every year, Moulin Rouge is in the top ten must-see items on the tourist’s list. Located at the bottom of a hill in the Montmartre neighborhood—then a sem…

Source: Louise and Jeanne: The Antipodes of Moulin Rouge | Victorian Paris

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First Night Design | I was Lucrezia Borgia

Portrait of Lucrezia Borgia by Bartolomeo Veneto [Wikimedia]

At some point in the 1980s, life was going particularly badly — plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose — and my dear, late friend, actor, writer and director Bill Moody, decided that to be reaping so many challenges, I must have been Lucrezia Borgia in a past life. I now begin to think he was absolutely right!

Some of you may have noticed that I was visiting your blogs again yesterday. Has my sight been restored? Nope.

There’s good news and there’s bad news.

The bad news is that I learned from the British ophthalmologist that the cataract operation on my left eye that was done in Crete a year ago was so out-of-date that the Isle of Wight specialist had not performed that particular procedure for twenty years.

The good news is that he was able to remove the stitch at the front of the eyeball. This, sadly, has made only minimal difference to the vision but enough to be able to read a little better and see pictures in more detail. The difference was not immediately apparent but became clear (pun intended) about lunchtime yesterday.

The bad news is that all the other stitches from that operation are still in the eyeball and deeply embedded.

The good news is he doubts these are affecting my vision and would prefer to leave them untouched unless later events change his mind.

The bad news is that should the need arise, it’s major surgery for the eyeball.

The next piece of news is good and bad. There is scar tissue that’s developed over the months from, I think, that one stitch he took out but it can be removed by laser and within the month.

In the meantime, I am now on the waiting list for a cataract operation on the right eye. Hurrah!

I’m a Survivor, Darling! Card

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Vintage Eye Salve for Modern Cataract

Vintage Eye Salve Advertisement © Sarah Vernon

Well, my dear friends and followers and anyone who’s along for the ride, my cataract operation is done but not quite dusted. I have multifarious drops — or salves, if you like — that have to be administered every two to three hours and every eight hours, and only discovered at my first outpatient appointment on Tuesday that there are stitches to be taken out in a month or two. What? Stitches? Why did no one mention that before? No, they’re not the kind that can dissolve. Of course not. Why would I be that lucky?

And that’s not all. I have double vision which is going to take a while to settle. It’s marginally better but my endurance is wearing thin.

In a bit of synchronicity, I sold this Vintage Eye Salve Advertisement last week while I was in the hospital. When I originally posted about it, some of you were a little freaked out. There is a market for it! Perhaps it’s been bought as a ‘get well’ card for somebody else who’s just had a cataract operation.

Talking of drops…

A little scene from a Scrapbook made for me as a child. © Sarah Vernon

Take care and keep laughing!

Dear Readers

You may have wondered why I have been absent from this blog since Christmas.  Well, I broke my hip at the beginning of the year and had a femur replacement operation.   This was followed by its dislocation and a further operation to put it back into place.  Then I fell over three times, the third time damaging the other leg but not, I hasten to add, breaking anything!

All this has left me with very little energy and sustained concentration, and since the anaesthetic from the first operation had an adverse effect on the old synapses of the brain, I could not read or write properly for the first two or three months.  I’m still not back to normal and only now able to walk without a Zimmer frame and only very slowly.  Oh, it’s an interesting life!

Let’s hope I am able to give you a proper post sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, take care and keep laughing.