October 13, 2023 Columns by John Connor No more ‘Independence Day’ for this tentative road worrier About a month ago, I embarked on what might have been my last-ever solo outing. You can file it away with my other lasts: sitting down and getting off the sofa on my own, walking without mobility aids, doing a controlled Frankenstein’s monster stumble into my bedroom, putting myself to…
June 3, 2022 Columns by John Connor Romance Means We Took the Weekend Off MS, Nearly There is a more heavyweight subject I could inflict on you lot, but letās put our feet up this week. Even I can do it with the one leg. My wife, Jane, and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary last Friday. Youād have thought weād have planned a big…
May 13, 2022 Columns by John Connor No Crisis, No Column? OK, Fine: Everything Takes So Long With MS This weekās been a relief. I havenāt had to dash to casualty or fallen over in my chair. Nor have I stirred up a ruckus with the health powers that be or bumped into a fellow MSer with an interesting tale. My knockabout personality undoubtedly has…
March 18, 2022 Columns by John Connor Everything Last Week Did Come in Threes My week is never exactly easy, but it’s much harder for my family. Not only do they have to deal physically with my ever-enlarging lump of flesh, thereās also my verbal diarrhea to contend with. Then last Tuesday, it wasnāt just the verbal kind. Turns out my bowels began to…
October 22, 2021 Columns by John Connor Party on, Dude, but Iām Still Blaming the Dog! It was my birthday last Friday. No cards, please; itās far too late. Anyway, considering the worldās supply chain disruption, Iād be well on the way to my next by the time it arrived! Just a small social gathering of immediate family. Six of us demolished 150 quids’ ā…
October 1, 2021 Columns by John Connor Thanks to a Wheelchair Mishap, I Was ‘Busy Goin’ Nowhere’ I was tryin’ to find lots of things to do while being trapped at my desk because of a wheelchair mishap. Apologies for my adaption of Bing Crosby’s rendition of that happy-go-lucky song “Busy Doing Nothing.” I was trapped because at 8 p.m. last Friday night, the wire that…
July 16, 2021 Columns by John Connor Down and Out in London Town Last month, my brother-in-law finally managed to return to Thailand and his lovely wife. He’d been trapped in the U.K. for over a year due to COVID-19. Thailand has quite rightly imposed a Kafkaesque set of rules about entering the country on an extended immigrant visa. Luckily, we had…
February 26, 2021 Columns by John Connor After a Full Dose of Steroids, I’m Still a Little Old Man at 63 “Let’s go for a walk,” my wife, Jane, chirpily suggested. This was a bit of a nightmare. I had to put on trousers. I perhaps cheekily get away with only wearing an apron all day. It makes going to the bathroom so much easier. (A little later in the day…
September 11, 2020 Columns by John Connor Turn It Off, Then On Again There’s always something! As a columnist, that comes in handy, as then I don’t have to think too much. Stop snickering at the back for thinking that I never think. How very dare you? If any of my fellow Brits are reading this, yes, I’m liberally nicking comedy catchphrases. Why…
September 13, 2019 Columns by John Connor Going Mobile, Part 2: I’m Powering Around the House Ah, the sequel. Back in April, I wrote about getting an electric wheelchair and then spending hours working out how to get it going. Six months later, I may have cracked the challenge of driving it without putting cracks in my house. When a district nurse visited last…