ALL WIRED UP!

I'm beginning to understand that wearing ear-phones doesn't mean that everyone is listening to their ipod music all day. Since finally giving in to buying one, an ipod i mean, my ear phones are generally in even when i'm not listening to some radio 4 podcast-far more satisfying that hearing repeats of songs i've known for decades. Yet, the frustration of the podcasts is that having selected to listen to Crossing Continents or Libby Purves Midweek conversations, I hear the first ten minutes before I fall asleep and wake up to find that if I want to hear the 50 minutes that I've slept through, I have to start the podcast from the beginning and thus, there is EVERY chance that i'll fall asleep at roughly the same point again. I have heard approximately the first ten minutes of about 100 radio 4 programmes these past couple of months. The wearing of the ear plugs obviously isn't obligatory all day, yet they sit quite snuggly and its only when Peter starts doing his sign language or shouting at me that I realise he thinks I'm 'tuned in' and listening to something. I guess its a sign of the times but whilst I almost balk at the idea that new technology is too testing I realise that like generations before me i'm struggling to keep up. Its not just complex but seriously cumbersome at times.
My recent stay in hospital had me laughing to the point of pain, not difficult considering i'd just been operated simultaneously on my back and my front! There I was, drip in one arm, Drains from the other side with large pouch attachment weighing in at least a kilo, the buzzer to call the nurse, the control to raise/lower/fold and collapse the bed, the TV control and earphone system (excellent! there for every bed at no charge!!!), my ipod, phone, and my CD walkman so I could listen to an audio book at any given moment. Glasses for reading perched on my head and of course glasses for long distance just in case I needed a clear view of young Cheska in the bed opposite! Worse still, on good advice I had taken my Virgin Atlantic Eye mask to attempt to cut out the lights that are on or turned on throughout the night in hospital wards... All in all, I was wired up and seriously deranged by trying to be sorted! Are you beginning to get the picture??? Which buzzer, what bell, what was ringing, talking to me and where had I put it? Despite the pain, the aftermath of the anaesthetic and the horror of the surgery I was collapsing into hysterics at frequent intervals as I tried to look at TV through my eye mask, made the bed fold in half instead of calling the nurse and blasted my ears with my ipod whilst trying to find my ringing phone. Ahhh......i'm trembling at the very memory of it all. Still young Francesca in the bed opposite was at least HIGHLY AMUSED and come to think of it, its still amusing me some 6 weeks later! Now home and slowly recouperating, I have to deal with my e mails, my blog and facebook. There are endless batteries to be recharged, updating podcasts and chatting on line. Work? when would one ever find the time? No this hi-tech 21st century communication order is tough going. It obviously takes a seriously intent mind to manage the demands of the day. So for that reason I'm going to take my weary body back to bed and get a few more hours sleep -with my ipod, of course!!