current situation

Jacques was in state general hospital the whole of June and half of August, and following up as outpatient. He is recovering well and gradually but steadily picking up weight he is completely mobile and has been able since returning home. He does look a great deal more healthy now, sleeping well too. Jacques is Spartan allright. He was born a soldier. We get along well and my own health has been very good.

He sees to shopping and meals I do my bit, dishes and general cleaning, mopping floors and so. We each do all our own washing clothes and keep things neat and organised. I watch a lot of movies, read some literature lately and a bit of mathematics. Keeping things in order, DVDs, books etc and the radio for company. I don't believe in “social media” it is destructive it looks to me like empty entertainment and a just a waste of time.

Sometimes Jacques gets a guy for the garden, we both are out of jobs for long now it's just ABC, we are coping although income from my mother's inheritance is small we come by. She passed early 2019 we both have been unemployed for years now, we have very few visitors one or two family members just now and then that's it. Luxuries and leisure hardly exist.

I have given up drinking for over two decades and stopped smoking about 8 years, Jacques is completely clean also now for a good few months, most of the year.  Anyway you save lot of money. Last I joked with my GP, "How do you know your patient is well? "When you don't see him". I was told they moved to Cape Town we have a doctor now much nearer!

For me birthdays are of little value but we always made a big thing of Christmas.

All the best! Tom Brown

(By the way our electricity load shedding difficulties in South Africa really seem to be improving and many people have found different ways to deal with it. Next year we have general elections, whatever happens we are in for big changes. We are sitting with other really serious challenges, post office services, public broadcasting, airlines, freight transport. Bankrupt. And in general the cost of fuel. It looks like everybody is in trouble. Big Trouble. There is only one approach that could possibly work and that is privatisation and exploiting our mineral wealth. On top of all this we have very serious social problems, education, employment and housing, informal settlements public health services and crime the list goes on).