Wednesday, I wake knowing the initial outcome of yesterday’s blood test. Just after midnight the first basic test results came in. My Haemoglobin, White Blood Cell count, Neutrophils and Heamatocrit/PCV are all good. I wait for the rest to arrive but that will not happen now until after midnight tonight. So, I move into today slowly with a lazy muesli breakfast to accompany my meds. It’s a toss up between the Shed, the gym and the garage today.

I go to the Shed and write letters until my partner comes to beg a stamp. At this point it throws it down with rain, so I stop for lunch. I have been feeling a bit off when going for a pee today so I do a dip test and find my Ph and specific gravity values are up, which makes me think it might be a UTI in the making. I ring my doctor and am promised a phone call later. IN a burst of optimistic life admin I book a ticket for a three-day conference in October. I also have some message conversation with a friend who alerts me to the fact that the author of Before the Coffee gets Cold, Toshikazu Kawaguchi, new book Before Your Memory Fades is available. I immediately order it from Amazon so tomorrow I will be able to settle down with a new book. Once the rain stops, I post my letters and then I fill more time doing crosswords until a late afternoon football match is on TV.

My partner goes out for dinner with a friend in the evening so my eldest daughter and I make chicken fajitas for tea and I return to watching football. So my evening passes and I draft the blog while deciding whether to stay up and see if more blood results come through. I probably won’t as when my GP rang back, she had the temerity to ask me to bring a sample to the surgery tomorrow morning for testing as she did not want to prescribe antibiotics unnecessarily. In the meantime, I am to drink a lot of water. Retirement is turning out to be a real joy.