Thursday and its up early to get to the GP at 9 o’clock. Breakfast is provided by my partner, my favourite bacon bagel, grapefruit and coffee. I set up the laptops for the training workshop I am co presenting at 10 o’clock before getting myself off to the GP. I go through the usual routine of checking in and then hanging around at the back door to be let in by the doctor. I sit down in the doctors room on a socially distanced chair and the doctor brings up my records some distance away from me. We chat the usual how big, is it sore, how long conversation after which the doctor measures my facial cyst/boil/blocked gland/tumour/thingy, he then grabs hold of it to appreciate how solid it is. He goes back to his desk and asks me more questions. The outcome is that he refers me to the head/neck and throat team to check whether my lump is cancerous or not. I should hear in four working days, and he gives me a printout with contact numbers and the rules of engagement. I thank him and leave.

Back home I log into my training session and chat with my co-presenters before the sixty attendees log on. So dead on 10 o’clock we are off and running. That’s me until 3:45 in the afternoon. For me the training is only interrupted at lunchtime when I host an open forum for an hour and then return to the training session. So a full on screen day, and although we use cyber polls, word clouds and other techno devices it is still a struggle to sense what is going on in the “cyber room”. It is tiring and unpredictable, but like all things it passes. It comes to an end and the team do a quick debrief before we head off in our different directions. I get into my training gear and get into the garage and strap myself into the rower. 45 minutes on level 5 taken slowly and concentrating on rhythm, whatever the outcome it will be a personal best.

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Tea, live football and then the blog. An additional pleasure today is a letter from a friend that I save to read in the comfort of solitude as the rest of the household goes to bed. During the day I have dipped in and out of my WhatsApp messages to see how my partners brother is doing in hospital. Late in the day we find out that the procedure from yesterday was not totally successful and that the fistula has only been partially closed. The MDT is to meet and discuss what they need to do next and weigh up the pros and cons of further intervention. So my brother in law has to wait for a couple of days in hospital while while the team make up their minds what to offer. So the waiting will go on for a while. All the while the clock ticks, wanting to spend time with people continues and the ocean remains stubbornly far away.