Wednesday

Well, things are fine and it is Wednesday. Romy is collecting me at around 9am and we are off to Torquay for a week. Yesterday I spent some time looking for fun things to do in Devon and printed out a few. Julian will feed Kooky. Julian came around to play with Kook the other night and tidied up the garden a bit.

Strange things are happening around me: recently Dorian hosted a 'Turkish/Irish circumcision party' at Lye Torng, and yesterday in the shopping centre, a stall holder, very shrill woman, attacked a customer, tall gay guy. They both came to blows and she screamed very loudly and continually to the delight of onlookers, until separated by another stall holder. Also, I have a plague of nasty ants with wings in the hall. They still pop up despite laying of numerous traps, so I may need to get some pest control person in. We shall see when I return.

Nibby due to leave for Oz today. But she's aiming to return as soon as she had sold her house.

Very Quiet Weekend

Pottered around in the garden, but it has been a bit cold and windy. Two strawberries have ripened and I have now eaten them from my windowbox. Plus an alpine strawberry I picked from the guerilla gardeners plantation at the end of the street.

Strange that a friend of a friend has received a Facebook friend request from Roxy who died over two years ago. We had not thought that Roxy ever had a Facebook account. This is being investigated.

Bumped into a local guy who had been incredibly obese and used to use a mobility scooter to get around. He has lost an incredible amount of weight ( I think the local chemist had him on Alli) and he not only looks completely different, can walk about well, but has grown several inches in height. Very impressive. Dorothy has also lost yet another 1lb this week, which is good. Romy has been doing very well for some time, noticed by the punters. I am sure the power plate is helping, though she is packing to move soon, and the dashing about doing all that will be positive. I am the odd one out here. I don't think a bit of painting, which I have re-started, is going to make the pounds drop off rapidly, though who knows.

A call from Nibby oop North who has been property hunting already and seems determined to return to the UK. We shall see.

My health seems OK so far (fingers crossed). Tomorrow I am due to have my hair done, and back to work for a couple of days on Tuesday.

Medical Saga Continued

Finally managed to get an emergency appointment today and went off clutching forms for blood tests and x-rays.

At the hospital the x-ray gown did not quite cover my vast expanses, so I had the bright idea of putting another one on the other way round, which worked very well, and is, apparently recommended practice, though no one had mentioned it to me. The poor radiographer had just had a major hernia op and wasn't allowed to lift people so was glad I could get onto the x-ray table easily. He was expecting a quiet afternoon because of the football. He told me that his wife was about to have a baby, so they had put his op forward so that he could look after the babe in the case of any complications.

I shall have the results in a couple of weeks and have an appointment with the GP to hear what may or may not be the problem. I hope for 'not'. So unless things go downhill over the next few days I shall visit the hairdresser on Monday and pack to leave for Torquay on Thursday.

Bad Night , Country Trip and No Quacks Available

Awful night waking every 15 minutes or so, but felt much better after breakfast so decided to go on the trip. Buratta's is simply fantastic, an old fashioned pub with ducks in the garden, wonderful food and a little antiques corner. I purchased most of this. We then went on to Grey's, an old house near Henley. This was very pleasant with lovely gardens and so on, but one or two of the punters who had insisted on swapping the Monday trip were just not up to all the walking.

Slept like a log last night. I was supposed to consult the quack today but put it off for a while and when I rang NHS Direct their advice was to take paracetamol! On the way to the shops I had lunch - Chicken Penang, and almost immediately it went straight through me - so dashed back home and rang NHS Direct again. This time the diagnosis was irritable bowel, and I should consult my GP urgently. Rang the GP - a recorded message said they were on a training afternoon and I could ring Celldoc (didn't much fancy that after recent newspaper reports) so unless things get worse I shall purchase a cork and try to see them tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile Romy is coping with domestic dramas of another kind, which should hopefully be sorted soon. I have a hair appointment on Monday, and am now wondering whether to cancel it.

Good Trip despite Tiresome Pains

May have an acute abdomen. A bit of pain, especially when I cough and rather swollen. Temperature only up a tiny bit. Due to go on outing with punters today. Since my symptoms have been present for a while I should be OK if I don't do much. I have had all this for a week or so with no further progression, so I am hoping that nature will cause it to go away. I seem to remember reading once that a lot of conditions tend to right themselves eventually if left untreated. We shall see. Bloody nuisance though. If things don't improve I shall ask the GP to do an ESR just to see if there is any untoward infection going on.

The place is still full of books. Louise was supposed to come over and take some on Saturday afternoon but didn't turn up. I shall just have to chuck them out with the rubbish, a bag at a time.

Managed to go on the trip to Denbies and only a few episodes of pain. It really was a very pleasant trip, with wine tasting and a lunch upstairs in the gallery cafe. Last night I watched TV and a lot of the pain came back, also during the night. So annoying. This morning I googled my symptoms and I seem to have about half the symptoms of obstruction. Fortunately, because the other half are much worse. I shall attempt to confine myself to fluids for a day or so to see if things subside.

My poppy is now out. Here's a snap.

Sunday Again

Sunny outside so far. Reading a book one of the builders left behind: The Take, by Martina Cole. All about kind of low life gangsters from the East End.

Took a few snaps of Nibs before she disappeared. She rang the other night and it seems she had a good lunch with her ex best man and they had a long chat about past times before parting again. I later found out that rather than going to Olympia and Clapham Junction she could have taken a bus to Putney and caught a train from there to Surbiton. Oh well.

Purchased a frock and jacket from Sensational since I am rather short on summer frocks. I have arranged to have my hair highlighted again. I purchased a hairpiece and it looks a bit too blonde, so the real hair will have to be done. Probably about time anyway.

Forgot to take my bendrofluazide a couple of days ago and was horrified to find my weight had gone from 16.11 to 17.4 during that time. Now down to 17st and hoping for further loss. May actually try dieting, too. It is working for Dorothy who has lost quite a few pounds recently. Oh well.

Au revoir, Nibby.

Here's the Kookster in a takeover bid for my bed.

Tuesday. Uneventful time at work with Romy in Spain, and due back in the office today. We have an outing on Monday which I must remember to attend. People kept ringing up wanting to change their outing dates when they discovered friends were going on another day. Oh well.

Wednesday. At St. Thomas with the neurologist. Two pieces of good news: I can have a scan done privately on the NHS in Harley Street on a scanner designed like a hamburger rather than a sausage machine made specially for claustrophobics. Also, my dizzy spells are almost definitely caused by some calcified bits and pieces rattling around my inner ear upsetting my balance and producing the symptoms. This can usually be dealt with by exercises with a specialist physio, aimed at locating these tiresome calcifications in a less upsetting place. I can see rather a margin for error here. Hmmm.

Thursday. Nibby back from Lucca last night with tales of wonderful villas, towns, churches, people and painting. Her sketchbook of harlequins had been very much admired, and was apparently very similar to work done by a well known Italian artist, which pleased her.

Rang Dorothy who booked a table at Arbutus - fortunately they had a last-minute cancellation and had a superb dinner there. It was Dorothy and Julian's only chance to meet up with Nibby, since she is going up to Macclesfield after spending the weekend in Surbiton. It was nice to have a get-together, especially as Dorothy is always so busy. Julian is looking after Kooky when I go to Torquay soon. Julian may come and stay here, which would be good as the garden may get watered while I am away.

Nibby has been invited to lunch in South Kensington today by the best man at her wedding many years ago. I'd love to be a fly on the wall. Hope it's fun for her.

Seems she won't now be coming back, as she will spend her last night with Bear, who will take her to the airport on 24th. Boo Hoo. Oh well, she says she's coming back to stay in a year or two.

Good Sunday

Purchased my paper and had a coffee. Later, Madeleine collected me and gave me a very good lunch at the Chop House, and it was warm enough to sit outside and look at the river. Tony Lucas and his wife passed by with some friends, and it was good to pass the time of day with them. Later, Madeleine inspected my changed living arrangements, admired the garden, and collected a few books from my huge surplus, which I can now chuck out after Louise has gathered a few more.

Was looking through my paintings to find some of the slightly better ones to put up and discovered that quite a few of the slightly more presentable ones have disappeared, not sure where. May have thrown them away by mistake. Oh well, I shall just have to paint some more, better ones. Have had an idea about the portraits which I partially covered in blue swirling paint. I may have an attempt at a third layer, painting small vignettes of either scenery or significant things on the top, just to see what happens - since I have three of these paintings, there's plenty of scope for experimentation.

Bridge Mark

The logo is a mystery, called the Bridge Mark. There is an image of it in Southwark Cathedral. I shall investigate further.

I find it is the logo of Bridge House Estates, so how it came to be the logo of St George the Martyr Charity I really don't know. Seems that the City sought to control Southwark in bygone years, so maybe that is something to do with it. It is one of the oldest logos known, apparently. There's more in Wikipedia.

Incontinent Club Names

I may have previously mentioned a club playing techno and electro in London called WetYourSelf. This has now been taken a step further by a 'five room bass frenzy' in Bristol called Shit the Bed.

I wonder if large nappies are issued on admission, and are these activities compulsory for participants?

Gosh, my life is dull.

- and here's another snap

Gaywood Street Blooms

Snapped these on the way to the framer. This is a piece of waste land which someone, apparently living in the street, has planted up with these lovely flowers. Such a pleasure to see, and so surprising.

Bloodthirsty Judge

Our river commentator told us that criminals were tried at Wapping, and often sentenced to hang from Execution quay until the tide came in and drowned them. He said that Judge Jefferies, the notorious hanging judge, would cross the river after sentencing and sit in the Angel pub over the river to watch them drown.

Above is Execution quay which is the building marked with an 'E'.

Wednesday Thursday and Friday

On Wednesday, Nibby wanted to see the exhibition of Italian renaissance drawings at the British Museum, so we set off and were most impressed by the paintings and the improvements there. We had an excellent lunch at the Skylon before sinking into a long afternoon rest at home. Early dinner because Nibby had to leave for Pisa on Thursday.

After seeing Nibs off on Thursday, I went to work, but the weather was so fine I did not achieve much. Today I managed a little more in that I set off for the Thames Barrier, catching the 10.30 boat. It was only £7 return with a Freedom card, which is rather a bargain. We had a most amusing commentator all the way. I still don't know whether Wharf stands for Ware House At River Front. Anyway alighted at Greenwich to wander through the market before lunching at San Miguel where we had taken the punters a couple of years ago. Very good steak, but I had caught rather too much sun on the outward journey so stayed inside on the way back. Took a rather dull snap of London Bridge because there is a small logo on it which I immediately recognised. Hmm.

Tomorrow I intend to take in some paintings for framing, and to collect a couple. Otherwise I shall have a quiet day.