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June Self-Portrait
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Category Archives: personal
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The Anthony Powell Society at 25
On a balmy early evening, on this day 25 years ago, six of us gathered at 7 Ormonde Gate, Chelsea, just across from the National Army Museum, at the invitation of Julian Allason.
Julian had the grand idea that we should celebrate English author Anthony Powell, who had died a couple of months earlier at the age of 94.
I was introduced to Powell’s magnum opus, A Dance to the Music of Time, in 1983 by my wife’s best friend from school. “You like Evelyn Waugh”, she said, “You might like Dance.” Powell soon became one of my heroes.
Since about 1993 I had been building a web presence for Powell. And in 1997, at the time Channel4 TV showed their 4-part dramatisation of Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time, I had started an email discussion list for Powell’s works. I was resisting suggestions that I should start a Society in Powell’s honour.
Julian was one of the early contributors to the email discussion list, along with our friend Stephen who was one of the six aforementioned. I dragged in my wife, N, and our friend Sue, who was (and still is) a professional conference and event organiser. Julian brought along his friend Catherine, a PR specialist. Experts were needed!
As Julian had said to me a couple of weeks before: “We must celebrate the man. We must have a conference.” Which is where discussion started on that fateful evening.
Being the ever practical project manager, I asked how we were going to achieve this. After all, I pointed out, we were six nobodies, we had no entrée into the literary world, we had no money, and frankly we stood little to no chance of getting useful big name sponsorship (organisations like Vodafone and The Daily Telegraph were mentioned).
Julian, great on ideas and not one to be thwarted, said that we had to have something on which to hang the conference. So at 19:30 under a huge portrait of Peter the Great, the response was …
OK, Julian, then you’re Chairman … and Keith you’re Secretary (which I remained for 18 years!).
But we still had no members and no money. Julian committed to fix us a bank account. We agreed that everyone then joined to the email discussion list (barely more than a couple of dozen people) was an honorary member until the end of the year – giving us time to organise a membership system.
And that conference? We held it at Powell’s alma mater, Eton College, the following St George’s Day. To this day I have no idea how we achieved that given that we were all also doing demanding professional jobs.
Since then the Society has achieved a lot: not least 10 international conferences and more than a few publications; we were awarded charitable status in 2003.
(On a personal note the Society has taken me to places, and introduced me to people, my wildest dreams couldn’t have conjured up.)
So today, after a lot of hard work, good luck, and almost against all expectations, the Anthony Powell Society celebrates its 25th anniversary.
Sadly Julian died a few years ago, so will not be here, at least in person, to see the fruit of his idea.
You can find out more about the Anthony Powell Society and its work at https://www.anthonypowell.org/. There is also a Facebook page and a YouTube channel.
Unblogged May
Some things to be recorded, or that happened, during the month and which I’ve not otherwise blogged about.
Thursday 1
Phew! 1 May and it is unseasonably hot even for mid-summer. We’ve hot around 28°C today, which is almost 10° above the average for May. The hottest ever recorded temperature in central London was 32.8°C in 1922 and 1944 – and that was towards the end of the month. Apparently this is the hottest London May Day on record. The Met Office are saying the previous UK record temperature on 1 May was 27.4°C in 1990 at Lossiemouth, Scotland.
Friday 2
Today we completed the next set of 50 Postcrossing cards: numbers 301-350. Here they are on the display board.
Sunday 4
Gah! I’ve had one of those days. Pond pumps both choked full of algae which took an hour to clean out. Then the credit card company decided to block my main card as they didn’t like me putting through two transactions for mobile phone top-ups within minutes. And guess what – they can’t unblock it until office hours on Tuesday. Nor can I file a complaint until Tuesday either. Very not impressed.
Tuesday 6
Why do hospital trips take up so much time and energy? I went with N today to her consultant’s appointment, which was booked for 13:00. We left home about 12:15, and I finally arrived back at home at 15:00, the actual appointment having lasted no more than 20 minutes. Mind, I did stop for a sausage sandwich, and spent a very pleasant 20 minutes sitting outside in the sun while waiting to be picked up.
Thursday 8
That was a quick Conclave; they usually take far longer than 2 days. And we have an American Pope; albeit one who has served most of his priesthood in South America. This surprised me – and many others. I had expected the new Pope to be from either Africa or SE Asia; and to be a traditionalist rather than a progressive. So this could all be interesting.
Sunday 11
We moan when it’s wet. So now I’m going to moan about how dry it’s been. So dry that everything outside needed a good watering. Hopefully tomorrow the gardener will manage to get the watering system up and working.
Monday 12
The gardener did come, and did get the watering system set up – just before the thunderstorm. Really heavy rain for about 15 minutes, including some hail. But it is still horribly humid.
Tuesday 13
I woke up with vertigo. Not very bad, but bad enough to put a spanner in the works. Took some ibuprofen and took the day easy; and it went away during the day. It can just stay gone away! As one friend said to me: “So I’m not the only one waking up with a hangover without having a drink the previous night?”
Wednesday 14
I fell over in the kitchen this evening, as I stumbled against the stool and didn’t have anything solid I could grab onto. But I did have enough that as I fell, back down, I was able to descend relatively safely and not crack my head on the tiled floor. But getting up was a real problem as my (replaced) knees won’t kneel, I had nothing helpful to hold onto, and a non-grippy floor. I managed it eventually, but not without having to kneel and really hurt my knees and toes. This is my second fall this week, although the first could have happened to anyone. On Sunday, in the garden, I needed to sit low down to fiddle with the trail camera. But my weight sitting on an upturned bucket doesn’t work, it collapsed and I tipped gently backwards. Getting up from that was easy as I could roll over, put minimal weight on one knee, and had a grippy lawn for foot grip. We’ll not have a third, thank you!
Thursday 15
Pleased today to have a couple of very pretty but unexpected flowers on my dendrobium orchid.
Saturday17
Really really good meeting of GP’s patient group this morning. As expected I was asked to continue as Chairman. Lots of good discussion and feedback from our Practice Manager. I do sense a greater openness and less defensiveness, which is good.
Sunday18
A day of doing absolutely nothing except piddling about, because I couldn’t do anything more. I’ve been very depressed the last few days, so I was even less inclined than usual to do anything – especially as I could not wake up and it was gone 10:30 before I managed to rouse myself and get vertical (which I hate). The last two nights being full of anxiety dreams hasn’t helped at all – you know, the usual dream stuff: losing people in a crowd, exams, work. I wish I knew how to get rid of all this.
Monday19
Oh bugger! N has been suffering over the last few days with a filthy cold which seems to be going round her treatment centre. So of course I now have it: the usual cold, sinus problems, headache and some vertigo too. I was obviously starting it yesterday, which would explain my inability and why it persisted through today. This is the first really filthy cold I’ve had for several years. Luckily N felt up to taking two of the cats to the vet for treatment; I feel guilty for ducking my part of the exercise but I couldn’t face the car journeys. Fortunately the gardener cancelled which took some of the pressure off.
Wednesday21
Still struggling with this cold, which makes the depression worse, so I’ve done nothing much for the last few days. I keep thinking “One good night’s sleep will see it off”, but it hasn’t yet – although it is slowly receding. At least I don’t (yet?) have the awful chesty cough that N still has – and I would appreciate not having it, thank you.
Friday23
“Have you thought what you want to eat this evening” I say to N late in the afternoon.
“No not really” she says, “probably just a sandwich. What do you want?”
“What’s important is what you want; you’re the one who’s struggling. But I’m tired of eating sandwiches.”
I’m thinking, when did we last cook a decent meal; we seem to be eating bread and something for lunch and dinner every day.
“Well, we could have pizza” she says. “At least it’ll give you something hot.”
So I order pizza – it’s our one (occasional) concession to fast food and ready meals.
Saturday 24
Yesterday’s pizza was a damn good move. Two large pizzas not only fed us last night, but lunch today and a picnic evening meal when N got back from the hospital.
Sunday 25
Yum, yum. Two packs of very good meaty pork ribs for evening meal. Marinaded overnight with brown sauce, garlic, tomato etc.; and oven baked on a baking sheet so they were nice and sticky. Served with lots of roast vegetables (an excellent way to use anything getting a little tired). And there’s enough for a quick tea tomorrow.
Monday26
It’s another bank holiday, so of course it is wet – but at least it was forecast. Luckily the rain held off until mid-afternoon, as the gardener came. He had to spend too long clearing algae from the main pond pump; I should have done this but couldn’t get past the depression, and moreover I could not work out how the casing came apart (turns out it needs a screwdriver!).
Friday30
Couriers are the pits. I have a fairly expensive package coming from Italy. It’s been consigned to UPS; originally for delivery today. Now UPS are normally one of the better couriers; but this time they decide to deliver the package early: yesterday afternoon. Except that they didn’t. They claim they tried and there was nobody here – not true because I was here. So they try again today, with the same result; although this time both of us were here. Now they say we’ll try again, a third time, on the next business day (apparently tomorrow) but if we fail again the package will be returned to the sender. At this point I wonder if they’re trying the wrong address, or not leaning hard enough on the doorbell. Having fought UPS’s website, I call customer services. The young lady says: yes I can see that; and OK so it does take you time to get to the door; I’ll talk to the depot; they may ring you. Soon after a young lady rings me from the depot; I explain again. Oh, she says, I can see what’s happened: it’s been put on the wrong van so the driver should have logged it as a sorting error, but instead logged a failed delivery; I will talk to the warehouse to ensure it gets on the right van, and it is flagged for delivery tomorrow between 9 and 12. I’m guessing there’s a driver who’s going to get a rocket. In fairness, both young ladies were very helpful and owned the problem; 10/10 for their customer service. We’ll see what happens tomorrow; because if they try and fail again, and send the package back to Italy, I shall be very annoyed indeed.
Saturday31
Well my package from Italy did arrive, and in the time slot they said. Judging from all the mangled labels on it, it really has been round the houses to get here.
This Month’s Two Tiny Changes
Each month during 2025 we’re offering two tiny changes which may help improve your life. This month …
- Cut your hair short. It’s much easier to maintain, and you may be able to do it yourself and avoid the cost of the hairdresser.
- Take a five-minute break every 60-90 minutes.
Monthly Self-Portrait
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Unblogged April
Being my usual round up of things what I done this month but didn’t previously write about.
Tuesday 1
It’s literary society year end. As I do the memberships, I bring in most of the money, so my finances have to be reconciled. And all the subscriptions are due, so there’s a mountain of that to process. It’s going to be manic for the rest of this week, at least.
Thursday 3
N has now been going to the hospital 3 times a week for almost a year, and today was the first time that her hospital transport got royally buggered up. Apparently someone cancelled it; they hadn’t; there was a name confusion. The upshot was that instead of being picked up about 12:00 for a 13:00 clinic, she finally left home just before 15:00. This well screwed everything for both of us.
Friday 4
This evening, a variant on our infinitely adaptable “all in one” salad; and even more variable as I did us separate bowls of salad because N is having to be more careful about diet. We had the end of last weekend’s roast chicken: not a lot; and it needed recooking. So I chucked the pieces in a frying pan and sizzled them until crisp. Put together with some steamed early English asparagus, croutons, cherry tomatoes and red chiccory. A tasty quick dinner.
Sunday 6
I don’t believe it! We already have a few flowers on one of our small (eating) apple trees; it shouldn’t really be out for another 3-4 weeks! There’s also flowers on the ornamental crab, but that’s less surprising as it is always early. And the columnar crab isn’t very far behind.
Monday 7
Why are ears such a pain? Not content with having wax in my right ear, I woke this morning with both ears bunged solid and unable to hear anything. It cleared a bit after a hot shower, but it was even so just not worth wearing my hearing aids, partly due to the discomfort and partly as they weren’t going to do a lot of good. And of course, it’s miserable. It’s not as if I don’t put olive oil in my ears regularly to keep the wax soft, as medically advised.
Wednesday 9
It’s all good fun. So they tell me anyway. I finally got fed up with trying to clear my ears and, after much searching, found a sensible place to get them vacuumed. Private, of course; trying to get it done on the NHS with any speed is a lost cause. So I book for tomorrow, although inconvenient. And afterwards find I’ve booked the same young lady that did my ears about 18 months ago, somewhere totally different.
No sooner had I done that than my most nuisanceful crown came off! So I now also have a dentist appointment on Friday morning. If this doesn’t end up with an extraction I’ll be very lucky – we know here’s not a lot of tooth left to fix a crown to. Well that buggered up any plans for the rest of the week. It never rains but there’s a flood.
Thursday 10
Blimey! Talk about efficient. I went for my ear hoovering this morning. 11:30 appointment. I arrived at 11:10. Seen straight away and out in 10 minutes. Job done. Home by midday having waited 20 minutes to be picked up. It isn’t half nice to be able to hear properly again, and not have uncomfortable ears.
And it’s been a lovely sunny day; all the trees are bursting into leaf, so everywhere is splodges of bright green new leaves – and apple blossom.
Friday 11
Trip to the dentist to see about my crown. And exactly as expected, young miss dentist says there’s nothing more she can do with it as there’s not enough tooth left to fix a crown to. So the tooth has to come out. And that means a referral to a specialist as (apart from being an awkward back tooth) it has at least one curved root which could cause problems. That’ll be a lot more ouch of the wallet, unless we can swing it as surgical and claim it on the medical insurance. Fun here, innit!
Saturday 12
And now all our apple trees are in full bloom, all at the same time which is most unusual (but what should happen). However there’s not a pollinator in sight; they should be buzzing with bees, flies, wasps. So it looks like it’s going to be a bad year. It’s not really surprising there are few insects around after last year’s poor summer and a very wet winter.
Sunday 13
During last week the guy next door to me had the fence between us replaced, which is fine as the deeds say it’s his fence. They were said to be putting in concrete posts and gravel-boards and it would take 2½ days. Knowing his propensity for employing cheap cowboy workmen I wasn’t hopeful. They started on Thursday morning and broke the back of the job by mid-afternoon; it was finished before lunch on Friday. They appeared to know what they were doing, and I know my neighbour is as well aware of the law on boundaries as I am. So I decided to leave them alone, not interfere, and trust them. This seems to have paid off. They look to have done a good job and respected the boundary line. Very pleasing.
Tuesday 15
Over the last two days council contractors have been resurfacing our road. So, I’m sure much to the annoyance of our neighbours, the road has been closed during the day. It’s been intermittently noisy, of course. I’m not knowledgeable enough to know how good a job they’ve done, but they do seem to have done the right things. When we were told this was going to happen, I was sceptical. I thought: “the council will do it cheaply and they’ll just have the contractor put 2cm of black-top on what’s already there, despite that the kerbs, manhole covers etc. will need resetting”. But no, they spent all of yesterday taking the top (maybe 4-5cm) layer of old tarmac off; and today they’ve laid the new. I don’t know if they’ve finished it all – apart from they’ll have to come back to replace the speed bumps and road marking. I wonder how long that will take?
Wednesday 16
The surreal sight of a small flatbed truck proceeding up the road with 8 stands of temporary traffic lights (upright) on the back. What a shame they weren’t also working!
Thursday 17
Lo and behold! The guys have finished the road. Bumps and white lines all replaced. Unexpectedly speedy!
Friday 18
As yesterday was Saturday, is today Saturday, Sunday or Noneday?
Wednesday 23
St George’s Day and we should all be out celebrating – not that we English do that. Instead of which it’s wet most of the day, although there were a couple of bits of sunshine. But the good news is that we have our first roses out: on Lady Hillingdon, of course.
Thursday 24
N appears by me this morning and says: “By the way I just found a large dead rat on the hall floor; I put it out by the gate so the fox can retrieve it”. Judging by the size she indicated it was getting on for 20cm in the body; certainly a decent size. Curiously none of the cats confessed to owning said rodent.
Friday 25
Last weekend I got the renewal for the house insurance. Bloody Hell! How can they justify raising the annual premium from £535 to £912? So during the week I’ve had a quick look around and found quotes in the £700 region – but it is impossible to compare like for like as every policy is (not so) subtly different. So I called my current insurers. Yes, says the young lady, the underwriters have increased all the premiums and everyone is complaining! What can we do to reduce the premium? Not a lot except increase the excess we pay if we claim (which to be honest is much lower than I thought it was). We do that and at least get the premium down to £776 – which is better, even if not good. The alternative is to start a new policy, probably with less good terms, and frankly I can’t be bothered to go through all the hassle. So this afternoon I paid up. At least it will get us a good dollop of points on the credit card which will get turned into gift vouchers.
Saturday 26
The Pope died last Monday, and his funeral was this morning. So, as much as any are, he’s an important world leader, but is that really an excuse for showing hours of the funeral live on prime TV? It’s not as if we’re a Catholic country. Will the BBC do the same for the Dalai Lama? I bet they don’t.
Monday 28
Three cats to the V-E-T this morning for their annual check-up and jabs. Luckily our black cabbie friend was available as that’s the easiest way to carry all three cats in their individual carriers; they’ll all stand on the floor – it’s almost impossible in a saloon car. Anyway …
- Boy is good and has put back the weight he lost last year; he’s now back to 5.5kg.
- Rosie is also good but is now 6.2kg and getting decidedly rotund, although the vet is unconcerned. However she does needs her teeth cleaning.
- Tilly has lost weight and is down to 3.9kg from her previous 4.55kg 2 years ago. So the vet took some blood; results this afternoon indicate elevated liver function, so the tests need repeating in a couple of weeks.
All that made a nice big dent in the credit card, with more to come! And we’re totally exhausted!
Tuesday 29
The buggers! Someone has knocked the nestbox out of the oak tree this afternoon; it’s on the garden path. Very annoying as I know the blue tits were using it. It was on the trunk and quite high up, so almost certainly out of the reach of cats. So one suspects either magpie or squirrel; although parakeet is just possible – or I suppose crow (unlikely with the magpies always around in the adjacent silver birch) or woodpecker (even less likely as I rarely see one). Nothing one can do, alas!
Wednesday 30
Yes, confirming that the magpies do have a nest in the silver birch. It is well hidden from our view by all the ivy and rose cambering through the tree. But at lunchtime I saw one go into the nest, and apparently settle down; then a couple of minutes later the second came along. What was interesting is that they have their own private track through the boscage; they both used exactly the same hops from branch to branch over the last metre or so to the nest.
World Pinhole Photography Day
Bah! Humbug! to the London Marathon. Much more interestingly today is World Pinhole Photography Day – always the last Sunday in April.
Before we had lenses for cameras, and indeed before we had photographic film, it was possible to view a scene, and project it onto a wall, using a tiny aperture. This was the camera obscura used by artists since ancient times.
(Click all the images for a larger view.)
Once cameras and the photographic process were available, it became possible to do this trick with a tiny pinhole instead of a lens. Needless to say the results are not sharp, as they would be with a lens, and because of the tiny aperture exposure times are much longer than we’re used to these days. But the smaller the pinhole, the sharper the image and the longer the exposure needed.
Nevertheless it is a fun, and often instructive, technique to try – and these days it’s very easy with (digital) SLR cameras. All one needs is a pinhole – and you can make that yourself! (If you hunt online there are people who will make a pinhole for your camera; or even sell you a bespoke pinhole camera.)
There are a number of “how to” sites on the internet. Basically you need only a spare camera body cap and bits and pieces you will already have lying around, like an empty drinks can.
A couple of years ago I made a pinhole for my Canon dSLR following the instructions on wikiHow. It was a bit tricky for me, with my ten left thumbs, but after three or four attempts at making the actual pinhole (in a piece of drinks can) I made something which works adequately if not brilliantly.
Setting up and taking pictures is easy enough. Fit the pinhole (body cap) to the camera and mount the camera on a tripod.
Set the camera to manual and ISO 100 (or slower). You can’t adjust the aperture of the pinhole, which will be tiny, so you then have to experiment with exposure times of 10-30 seconds (compared with the normal 1/100th or faster) in good light; longer in poor light or night. Use a remote control (or the camera’s timer delay). Now experiment.
So today I found my pinhole, and had a wander round the garden to see what looked likely to make a decent photograph. The images here are the best results (slightly colour enhanced). For comparison the following final two images are of the garden with a pinhole and with a normal lens on the camera – I reckon for a piece of crude homemade old technology the pinhole doesn’t do a bad job.
Of those four pinhole images, I think the first, the dandelion, has worked the best. What does anyone else think?
This Month’s Two Tiny Changes
Each month during 2025 we’re offering two tiny changes which may help improve your life. This month …
- Walk outdoors every day.
- Think about your future self. Don’t want to do that task? Think about how you’ll feel about it in an hour, or a day.
April Self-Portrait
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Unblogged March
Being, as usual, some various things from this month about what I never wrote before.
Saturday 1
St David’s Day. And I’ve heard nothing about it at all this year. So have some Spring sunshine …
Sunday 2
In the alley, at the back of next-door-but-one’s garden, is a reasonably sized, bare, tree. Every evening when it’s sunny the local pair of magpies sit in the top of the tree getting the last of evening sun and getting warm for the night. And doubtless keeping a beady eye open for stray snacks. Who blames them.
Tuesday 4
This evening, 18:30, it’s pitch dark. And the robin is singing away somewhere in the garden. Mind it’s been a lovely sunny day; it almost feels like Spring, especially as I’ve had the window open.
Sunday 9
Very annoying. We have a pile of stuff to get rid of: like dead PC printers and a couple of boxes of miscellaneous metal/electronic recycling; 6 items in all. Just after lunch today we put it all together on the front path, I photographed it and booked the council to collect it on Wednesday – cost £48. Within 2 hours 4 of the 6 items had been magicked away by some slithy toves, leaving just 2 boxes of crap. Just to run salt in the wound, not only will the council not let me cancel the request, nor provide a refund, but I can’t even email them to say “don’t bother”. So they’re now going to have a rather wasted trip; and we’ve wasted £48.
In better news, it was a lovely sunny day, so I decided to feed the pond fish. At first we’re not interested. Then one realises there’s something floating to investigate. Oh, Fred, did you say something about food? Another joins, and another … until most were having at least a snack.
Friday 14
It’s been a deadly week, absolutely swamped with work, mostly for the literary society. In the words of Marvin, the Paranoid Android: “Life. Don’t talk to me about life.”
Saturday 15
Last evening, in bed, something unusual happened. Boy Cat came along. Instead of settling down on top of N, as usual, he snuggled, sausage-like, between us, head at chest level. He then spent 5-10 minutes purring and kneading my armpit. I think in almost 8 years it’s the first time he’s done this; kneading is normally reserved for N.
Sunday 16
A few surprises walking round the garden today. I knew the small bush flowering cherry was in bloom. But I’d not spotted that we had a couple of blue hyacinths out, nor that the flowering currants (Ribes) were just coming into bloom. Lots of leaves breaking on the roses, but none of the trees are yet showing any signs of life.
Monday 17
The gardener came. So did the central heating guy – to look at a radiator which needed bleeding and I couldn’t shift the valve. It needed a completely new valve fitting; which in turn needed a load of stuff moving. Job done. Whereupon the gardener and the heating man had a long talk; they’re old friends and haven’t seen each other for several years. You try getting an Irishman and an Albanian to stop talking!
Friday 21
So Heathrow Airport is out of power and closed – because of a fire at an electricity substation. (I’ve been past that substation hundreds of times, and it is huge! It’s also an open target from the nearby road bridge.) Why do they not have twin-tailed power supplies? They should have at least two connections, on opposite sides of the airport. Both should be supplying power 24/7; and each should be able to automatically pick up the slack if the other fails. That’s normal resilient business operation for critical systems. Not having it is either negligence or a political decision not to spend the money. Whichever it is, someone needs their dangly bits feeling. Having contingency backup that takes time to kick in is not acceptable. I wonder if they’ll be made to pay all the airports who took diverted flights – and, of course, passenger compensation?
Saturday 22
It’s just relentless at present; a continual stream of work on every front; so there’s much that isn’t getting done. Still we had a really good social call for the literary society at lunchtime; only 9 of us but that included one from each of US, Japan, Ireland and France; with an hour or so of interesting discussion. We started with one person in Putney and I (so 8 miles apart as the crow flies) sharing that it wasn’t raining; we ended with the news that it had just started raining in Putney, but not here. Minutes later we started a good thunderstorm!
Sunday 23
The forsythia is in flower. This seems early; I always associate it with May not March.
Wednesday 26
What a wonderful warm sunny Spring day – it really does make one feel much better! Several of the local trees are beginning to burst their buds: ash, silver birch, hawthorn, horse chestnut. The cherry bush in the front garden is an absolute mass of flower; I don’t think I’ve ever seen it with so much blossom. Oh and something obviously had a woodpigeon last night: three significant piles of feathers on the lawn, so it was well plucked. Two of the three below; the third was quite widely scattered.
Friday 28
For the first time since before Covid I had a check-up at the Brompton Hospital for my sleep apnoea. I didn’t need it, but they’re trying to make sure they’ve seen everyone who got postponed. Overall result: Excellent. Modern machines record all the data, so they can download it (I can also get most of it) and the data is good; mostly over 90%. The young lady (Registrar I guess) was fairly delighted. So they’ve put me on the Patient Initiated Follow-up pathway: this means they’ll not call me in for another 5 years, but in the meantime if I feel I need a check-up (or technical support) then I have only to ask. This is a new NHS process which saves a lot of pointless appointments, patient inconvenience, and consultant time; so they can clear the backlogs and get to see those in urgent need much sooner. It has to be win-win all round.
Saturday 29
It’s being one of those days! Even before I’d got down to doing anything this morning, three things had SNAFUed on me. Then the Waitrose delivery was over an hour early! Why do these things happen?
And did anyone notice that we had a partial solar eclipse this morning? I knew it was going to happen, but it was so low-key that it had gone before I noticed! I always seem to miss these things.
Sunday 30
What a glorious, warm Spring day. The pond fish are hungry. The catkins on the silver birch are just starting to break. And the garden is awash with gorgeous sun-yellow celandines – I knew we had some, but didn’t realise quite how much they’d spread themselves around; there are little clumps everywhere, as well as a couple of large patches.
Monday 31
So here we are at the end of March, and in terms of months a quarter of the way through the year already. Although we need another day or two to get to 25% in terms of the number of days. Still, at least, it’s beginning to look and feel like Spring.