The lesson of fighting injustice

I heard someone say - a long time ago- and it was sage advice that didn't come from my mother!! - that the fool stands and fights, and the sage walks away. Perhaps that is a good lesson I could learn from insisting to fight Haringey, well known to be one of the worst councils in England when it comes to bullying, abuse, racism and just bare-faced lies-not to mention scurrilous rumours spread about any person who dares put their head above the parapet and complain about the shabby and despicable treatment!!

I thought about the entire situation-for more time than these people deserve- and I have decided that it is more important for me to do my exercises every day, and to have plenty of water, and to do all the things the vestibular physio and my neurologist have told me to do if I really want to get that 80% back. If I stop working hard every day, and if I continue to allow these worthless prats to aggravate me and cause huge amounts of stress, they win-and I won't get better. I can already tell the difference in my balance and vision in the last ten days: everything has gotten substantially worse.

It's a setback, not a relapse. I can correct this and move forward-but I have to let the Haringey thing go. Even the solicitor I consulted last week told me that Haringey has always encouraged (by turning a very blind eye to it) bullying and racism by its' staff. So I will get back to doing what is really important. Anyone else who wants to fight can do so with my blessing. And God help them!!

I went to a conference yesterday. It was in central London, and the place was packed. I got the chance to meet Liz and John, who are the people who started UKPIPS, the charity in which I have chosen to become involved. I'm really glad I decided to go, because primary immunodeficiency is a lot closer to my heart than these total morons from Homes for Haringey. At least I will be surrounded by positive, passionate, dedicated people who really do want to help others. There were a few -what my ex would have called "york and lankers" - and I leave that to anyone reading this in the UK who knows what the Cockney slang represents!!! LOL I'm getting so very PC in my dotage, I can tell you!!!!

Most of the people who spoke at the conference had a great deal of knowledge and the willingness to share it - so I learned a lot. But I struggled to get home (took me two hours for a normally 40 minute journey), and I was really knackered when I got there. But-the weather is lovely, sunny and warm, the clocks have gone forward, so it will be easier for me to go out at night (at least for longer than before), and what the hell-sometimes you are just fighting a battle that seems impossible to win.

I didn't win this one-but I didn't lose it, either, because I learned a valuable lesson: I learned when to walk away. Just shrug my shoulders, chalk it up to experience, and walk. I've got a more important battle to fight: the battle to get as much balance and vision back as I can. This other crap is just extraneous, really unimportant, and derailing me from my purpose.

And, by the way, there is an old New York expression (this one I did get from my mother, who got it from my grandfather, and so on...): what goes around, comes around. Someone else will hang this lot out to dry.

I've got a life to live, and I don't know how long I am going to be here (does anyone?). So, if I am going to fight a battle, it had better be for something really important!

I've got a friend overseas who keeps in touch with me-sporadically, but we do keep in touch. He is-would you believe- a lawyer!!!! When I was over there, working, we were on some committees together. I really fancied him, but he was married, and I never go there. Ever. Now he is not married-and I only discovered after I returned to London that he fancied me, too. How funny is the fact that I crack jokes about lawyers, but I fancy one!! Like in every other profession, there are good ones and not so good ones. That's life: good people and rather less than good people.

I do occasionally wonder if one thing would have led to another, and how far things would have gone if I hadn't left. It's probably only of anecdotal significance-but, as I said, fantasies can be so much more fun than reality!!!

There is life in this woman yet!!