Friday and I am awake early as I am having bloods done at 9:10 this morning. I have time for a shower, a coffee and my morning meds before walking down to my GP and settling into the reception area. I am soon called in and in the blink of an eye I am walking out minus a couple of vials of blood. I return home to drive my partner to garden centre we discovered yesterday for breakfast. However we find the tea room closed so we shop for plants to liven up my pot collection and to fill some holes in the flower beds. By the time we had loaded the car boot with the new plants it was time for breakfast. Eggs Benedict for me and more coffee. My partner and I chat about hypnotism and pain control and wander into the realms of different types of consciousness. More coffee and tea are ordered. We leave and drive home to unload the plants and get them undercover in the greenhouse. I spend a bit of time filling bird feeders and skimming some of the floating weed from the pond. Its over cast and damp, in fact bloody miserable for May and further more its forecast to be this shit for the rest of the month. Apparently the Gulf Stream is “wobbly” and failed to rise to its normal northerly latitude, hence the crap weather from the north. I realise that I am in danger of “Pilgriming”. There is a John Bunyan line that goes “Whoso beset him round, With dismal stories, Do but themselves confound.” In fact Maddie Prior can sing it to you.
My point being that there is so much shit going on that its quite possible that we are making it worse by going on about it and confounding ourselves. Certainly I’ve stopped watching the news, in fact most programmes as there is an underlying tone of doom and gloom in them all. Even the stories meant to uplift arise from a traumatic or despairing start point. I do not find these uplifting, it might just be me but I’m not engaged. However I shall try to emulate the Pilgrim and “His strength the more is.” in the face of the a world and media that besets me with dismal stories.
A friend calls and we chat about the arrangements for her daughters birthday party this weekend and the myriad things that have to happen in order for it to go to plan. Its a lengthy chat as apparently there are many things to do and attend to whilst, at the same time, balancing a spoon economy that is still fragile in the face of long COVID, It seems that in general the world has forgotten COVID or at least that there are still many people that have been left battling the aftermath of it.
My partner and I go to the gym. For me its a kill or cure option to chase off my cold. I get there and get a cross trainer. I had forgotten to take my phone up with me so I could not capture the outcome screen and had to resort to remembering my figures. As it turns out they were identical. 5.08 kilometres and 508 calories burnt during the 50 minute session. I am well pleased with that and it seems to have done me good. Sometimes you just have to show your body who is boss. Another shower and then in to the lounge for yet more coffee and a cookie while I wait for my partner to emerge. As we sit sipping or coffee a rabbit appeared outside the lounge window and happily hopped around oblivious to the cars parking by it. It was a very Blaise rabbit.
We drive home and having dumped my kit I remove the rear windscreen wiper from the car as it has torn and order a new one to arrive tomorrow. So begins the evening. I’ve a watch to re-battery, I think, and then there is Have I Got News For You on TV and more of the Night Agent to watch. The issue for me is whether I stay up past midnight to see if todays blood results are posted or not. I know they will be worse than last time because I know the medication is not working. It means my PSA will have risen, the question is by how much and at what rate. Regardless I will at some point take my night meds and go to bed. Or I may just read.
