Friday

Friday. Heralding the weekend. Yay! No more 9-5, or commute, or half-hour lunch…..oh, I don’t do that anyway! There is, however, still something encouraging about a Friday, even though I no longer need the weekend to recuperate from a heavy week. I have to confess though, it feels like it’s been a long week and I am pretty tired now, so roll on the weekend after all.

Anyway, back to today. John texted me: ‘No discernible cancer found in the bones’. Well, that’s good news, isn’t it? I think we were both anxious lest it be different, so we are both relieved. Despite our relief, though, John has had a ‘meh’ day today. Feeling low and suffering from the blues.

It’s not surprising really, though. He is stuck in a room and just gazes at the 4 walls, fiddles with his phone to see if there is anything exciting on there – books or games – and chats to me if he gets the chance. There ain’t a lot going on really and not a lot to do other than dwell on all the ills that ail him, and look back over his life to regret its passing.

Never mind, I reckon he’ll be out in a day or two. It seems that they are just doing a final few days of IV antibiotics before sending him home with an oral one. Fingers crossed for Monday at the latest….

In the meantime, I made the trip across to Heartlands to supply more PJs, a book, the ol’ man’s Amazon Fire and some eye drops. Sister on the ward said I could go up and exchange the clean clothes for the washing at the ward door, where John could do the handover.. Regrettably, despite telling the ‘Front of House’ people – security/receptionist/volunteers distributing the bags – that I was allowed, they refused to let me in. So I didn’t get to see him face-to-face after all.

I also went into Solihull to pick up my new glasses and have my hearing checked. Please note: I am not deaf. I don’t need hearing aids. If I don’t hear you, it’s because I’m not concentrating or actually listening to you. A problem associated with old age apparently…..

I did need new shoes though. My flip-flop type shoes that I use as slippers have gone home. My lace-ups have gone home, too….. not surprising really – I bought them when Graham and Gail were over from Australia for the first time, now over ten years ago.

Surprisingly, few shops had lace-ups, unless they were trainers – they are clearly no longer fashionable. However, I found a couple of nice pairs in the Clarke’s shop that I was interested in. One pair fitted, so I bought them. I bought the last pair of flip-flop type shoes in Ecco, and was disappointed not to be able to take advantage of another pair of shoes from there, as they had such snazzy colours.

The sun came out this afternoon here in Balsall Common and warmed up the garden beautifully. At last. Clouded over again this evening, and I don’t think the weather forecast is any good at all for the week ahead. Rain, rain and more rain by the looks of it. Oh, well, it’ll give me more opportunity to shred Mum’s papers….

• 27,125 people tested positive for the virus today
• 27 people died in the community
• 304 people were admitted to hospital
• People have stopped wearing masks…. did you see the people at Wimbledon today?
• Locally, in Tamworth, there has been a surge of the virus due to people going to the pub to watch the Euros – what a surprise
• 15 people have died in hospitals in the last three days
• Lots of people have been vaccinated
• But there are increasing reports of people who’ve been double-vaxxed catching the virus and initially thinking it’s just a summer cold before they have confirmation that they’ve been infected.

Take care everyone. If we remember the rules of masks and space and hand-washing, we won’t go far wrong. God bless.