My host

This is Rob, the medical marvel who reminds me of Don Quixote de la Mancha. If he could stand up straight he would be a little short of 2m tall but damage to some vertebra in his lower back give him a permanent stoop. H He accidentally modified his left hand by smashing the sinews of his thumb repeatedly with a hammer. Despite this slight to his eyesight, he prefers to rely on his eyes rather than on site layout when building and subsequently is proud of the fact that the structures he builds are "organic" in shape.

His knees are bigger than his thighs owing to arthritis and that, with a meagre bodyweight of 60kg, he weighs less than his dog. This may be explained by his diet which has been carefully planned to exclude most food groups especially fruit and vegetables. Perhaps this is to placate his hernia, though it does render him incapable of more than half an hours work before needing a nap. On the other hand, emphysema - treated by minimising his roll-your-own cigarette consumption to one every 30 minutes - could well have a part to play.

Periodically he is unable to sleep which doctors desperately trying to prove their competence have suggested is caused by an unidentifiable ailment of the pancreas. To cap it all, his wife believes he has memory lapses caused by "frontal lobe dementia" which to me is as skillful a diagnosis as any his doctors could give, though deafness in his left ear might account for some of it.

He is resigned to the pain and not inclined to do much about it; just chugs along one day at a time.

Despite all his he is an affectionate and considerate host. Sometimes I think he is frightened by the prospects of his end.Les mer