Before The Dawn

This morning's pre-sunrise view of the Scottish Mainland from my kitchen window.

Hospital.....again....or not!

I woke yesterday morning all prepared for the afternoon flight to Inverness and an evening in Raigmore Hospital's "accommodation block" called `Kyle Court  I had already thought up the blog post on the joys of 'Kyle Court',  hoping that I might eventually get a meal in the hospital (several hundred yards walk away across a gravel car park possibly in the pouring rain) and return to my room (not even with en-suite facilities) and, hopefully, sleep until this morning when my uretic stent was due to be replaced. 

However, early yesterday afternoon my cellphone rang. "Mr Edwards. where are you?"  Panic. Had I made a mistake? Was I supposed to be in hospital in Inverness having my operation? I answered that I was still at home just about to go to the airport for the afternoon flight to Inverness.  "Thank heaven for that!" was the reply. "Your operation has been postponed." It would appear that there was no theatre available because she then said that she would have to phone the surgeon (who was apparently not in Inverness) and tell her the operation had been postponed. 

I had already been told that it was important that the operation took place "on time" because of my "habit" of getting sepsis if the operation was delayed.  Not that long ago when the op was delayed I had to be flown on a Sunday afternoon by helicopter across The Minch to Inverness and have an operation the next morning before the infection really set in.   

So here I am a day later waiting for a new date when I should be resting after surgery and contemplating another 3 or 4 months before the next stent change, 

Ah well, c'est la vie. There is nothing I can do now but wait for the new appointment date. 

2026 - A new start

I WISH A VERY HAPPY AND, ABOVE ALL, HEALTHY 2026 TO ALL MY READERS

.....assuming that I still have any.

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

I have just realised that it it is two months since I last posted on this blog.  I'm pretty sure that's the longest gap since I started the blog in 2007 - 19 years ago. In some of the early years I also had my New Zealand blog for half the year.

Life has been very busy and despite still being able (thankfully) to keep going from getting up around 7am until bedtime, usually between 11pm and midnight, I haven't had to resort to afternoon naps yet. Which is a good job because more often that not I'm not at home! Falling asleep in shops or when visiting friends isn't a good look.

I am also finding it more difficult to find something interesting to write about. Perhaps it was always like that but my standards of what was interesting were lower. Who knows? Is there anyone left out there who cares?

What is worse, is that I'm losing touch with all those in Blogland whose blogs I also used to read. After all, that is, or was, what blogging was all about and so many friendships have been made over the last couple of decades. 

This morning as I write this I am also listening to (and sort of watching) the New Year's Concert from Vienna on the television. Wonderful. Oh how I miss the years when I was between 16 and 30 and had a friend (now very long dead despite being of an age with me) with whom I used to go every week in the season to the wonderful Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in Liverpool's superb Philharmonic Hall.

Blood on the Carpet

Fortunately I'm not particularly squeamish. 

Last week I was just about to get dressed and start the day, when a blood vessel in an artery in my right leg burst. Heaven knows why because the leg and artery have been part of me for over 80 years without any problems until then.

With my left hand clasped around a folded handkerchief stemming the flow I hobbled round the bed to the telephone.  The line was dead. The phone was out of order. Fortunately my cellphone was nearby and I used that to ring the emergency services. Within no time at all an ambulance arrived and, using the keycode, accessed the front door key and came in. It was a blues and twos call so everyone in the area knew that something was amiss.

After an emergency bandage had been applied they took me to the hospital and after more examinations and another dressing I was free to go home. Fortunately friends from nearby were in town and took me home.  A few days later a district nurse came to review the situation and give me advice on bandaging etc. 

I thought that I was looking at a new carpet and an insurance claim but we have a maker of magic who has a carpet cleaning business on the Island and after some hours of work he had the carpet looking almost as good as new. Certainly liveable with without the hassle of a new carpet and an insurance claim.  Amazing!