Back Update and Warley National Model Railway Exhibition

Hello dear friends and followers.

Well what a time we have had, or should I say Keith has had. Yes I know we thought things were improving after we saw a GP who had been a spinal surgeon, but that progress was also short lived. Having seen that GP on the Friday, by the following Wednesday on his lone medication Keith was in extreme pain and there was no moving him, so I was on to our own GP who happened to be in the surgery for once. He was a little dismayed that Keith had been taken off his pain relief for the Methocarbamol. His instructions were to carry on with the Methocarbamol, but to add the Diazepam and Oral Morphine back in to help with the pain and he was to add Naproxen which is an anti-inflammatory. So there was Keith flat on his back and rattling with all the pills he was now on. We are both thankfully he gets free prescriptions, because this episode would be costing us both our arms and legs. Back to square one and me playing nurse, we had to face the fact that we would not be going to the model railway exhibition, if he did not improve. Gradually Keith was able to get about again and we saw the physio again twice and each time Keith's back was looking much better. I think his desire to get to the exhibition spurred him on to recover. But it has been a long haul this time and it all came down to Saturday morning when we woke at 6am. My first question to Keith was "How is the back?". His reply was promising "It is ok". Up and about we got ourselves ready to go to the NEC Birmingham. We left home at just before 8am with medications on hand to walk to the railway station where we caught a train to Leamington-Spa.

From there the train took us to the NEC. We had stood all the way because the trains were packed, this was alright for Keith, because he is much better standing than sitting most of the time. At the NEC we had to find building 5 and there we found a large selection of stalls and layouts.

There was so much to see. We were mainly interested in the layouts, because we were looking for ideas for our layout. Whilst we have got a plan, it is always nice to see what others have done, especially when it comes to the canal scenes, which sadly did not come up to our high expectations. 

If you know about the historic working boat Spey you will know that this model is so wrong. 

One of our highlights of the day was meeting and chatting to Pete Waterman, who was doing his radio program from the exhibition. What a lovely genuine man he is. He was very interested in our new project and actually recognised Keith from us being on 'The Golden Age of Canals'. 

If he had not been busy I think we could have chatted for ages.

We decided with so many people at the event, we would have an early lunch at the small Wetherspoons, this proved a good idea, because after we had sat down for our meal the queue got longer and longer. 

Back at the exhibition, we did another sweep of the stalls and layouts. At around 2.30pm Keith was looking tired and I had seen all I wanted to see, so we agreed to head off to the station and head home. Once more we had to stand all the way back to Leamington-Spa and back to Warwick, because of it being so busy. It always makes me wonder where people have come from and where they are going too. 

Both Paddy and Marmite were happy to see us. Marmite was screaming for food as usual. Paddy was just glad to have us home. I lit the back cabin stove, because another heavy frost was expected and we would want a little warmth in the back cabin before bedtime.

Keith had not been sat in his chair long before he was snoozing away. It was fantastic that he got to go to the exhibition and that his back had behaved for most of it. I think we may be heading in the right direction now thankfully. Fingers crossed this will last for a while.