SMELT LIKE BURNT TOAST TO ME

I had a meeting in the afternoon. When I sat down on the bus I could smell burnt toast. Which worried me a little. I heard if you are having a stroke sometimes you can smell burnt toast. When there isn't any there. I glanced around the bus for toast, but couldn't locate any. I looked out the window to see if my vision was blurry. It was. Turns out they hadn't cleaned the windows for about three weeks.

I had stroke on the brain, I'm a bit young for it, although you can have one at any time, even children! My friend who is more of an age, got her words all jumbled the other day, while we were at the beach eating chips. So I started my are you having a stroke quiz. How many fingers am I holding up? Follow my finger with your eyes. Say 'the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog'. Okay that one's cheating thats a typing exercise to get you to use as many as fingers and letters as possible. She got as far as 'the quick brain face'. Hmmm, are you feeling peculiar? The things that were coming out of her mouth were so nonsensical neither of us could look at each other without both laughing until we cried. Okay focus, she said quite distinctly, 'I am a lunatic going somewhere to cannibal-apple'. Close but no cigar. Coincidently in written form this particular symptom is called Paragraphia. She returned to 'normal' in a few minutes. Maybe a TIA - transient ischemic attack. Lasts 1 - 5 minutes, a 'mini stroke', causes no lasting damage, unless you have a lot of them or go on to have a stroke. I'm keeping an eye on her.

It's been windy lately, but not too cold. I've taken to wearing my favourite long woolly cardigan out of doors, instead of just in the privacy of my own home. A spinal injury last year has caused me to add a lumbar roll of late to my accessories. The one with the waist strap so I don't leave it behind on the bus. I caught sight of myself reflected in the window of the bank on the way home from the bus stop. In my woolly hat and all I looked like a scarecrow, with a piece of string tied around my waist. All I needed was my gumboots and a net, and I was good to go - whitebaiting that is! Toast and fritters anyone?

I had to smarten up if I was going to make it out to the arts organization AGM tonight. Miss b-f now fully recovered helped me work out a more suitable outfit with a better shirt, a long coat, and an attache case to invest my lumbar roll when not in use. Which was quite a lot of the time, because the chairs at the AGM were the folding kind which don't even have a back part where your lumbar spine is! That didn't stop me discussing dessert recipes with my fellow artist, and eating a lot of the homemade vegetarian pizza. I brought Miss b-f home two pieces of the leftover pizza, all the way on the bus, between two plates.

But to the person eating burnt toast on the bus. Cut it out! I nearly had a stroke!