Monday, jab Monday, I wake up groggily and get myself orientated. My partner brings me a hot water to get me going. By the time I am ready to go for my jab I am feeling a bit more human, I think I am still feeling the effects of yesterdays long drive back from the lakes. when i get to the GPs surgery I find it is not my usual nurse, our conversation is brief and she gets to the business end of filling my gut with my jab. With the drugs in me I go to reception and book myself in for my winter flu and COVID jabs. I’m not sure if they do anything but I guess I cannot afford to leave myself exposed over the winter. On the way home I pick up a couple of iced buns and a news paper to keep me amused when the side effects of the morning jab kick in.

Once home I have breakfast and do the days crosswords. The first job of the day is to repair cold frame as one side of the frame has given way under the pressure of the wind. Its a case of tightening the screws in the top of the frame. Just to be sure that future high winds do not create the same problem I fit the lid with an additional fixing. Once I have started on my mending and making I move on to fitting the additional dead bolts to the back and front gates. Its a very close fit for the bolts but I have gathered together the tools I need and the fitting goes well. Now if we chose we can bolt our gates in a way that means that people cannot reach over to unbolt the gates. With my tools put away I order padlocks for the new gate bolts and a car hoover as I noticed that there are already crumbs on one of the seats. I am perhaps being too picky on Elsie’s behalf.

By the time I’ve done all this I am beginning to feel the side effects of my jab, cold and shivery so I change into soft clothes and start to watch yesterdays World Athletics on iPlayer as I draft the blog. As the evening approaches I feel the shivers get worse, I shall eat and hunker down till its time to take my night meds and hope I can get a good nights sleep. Part of me is inpatient for Sunday as that is when I will receive the authors copies of my anthology, I crave that “in my hands” moment but before then there is an oncology review to be navigated on Wednesday.