Good and bad

 Consultant meeting today, all systems go for week Tuesday..won't be next week as the consultant is on call for the A and E department.

Charlie is growing and spreading in situ, sideways and upwards, unfortunately traces found in lungs...which is better than liver...can be treated...should have a rescan in 3 months to see how fast they are growing and spreading.

So I am looking forward to a week off...sort of 😄 and we move forward.

He is doing his best to stay Posseetive...

We are also pulling things together to get our ailing boiler replaced and the 1970s roof insulation (70 mm at best) done properly..I think the present standard is 280mm? This is with a government grant to bring properties up two levels on the buildings scale. This needs to be got on the action list as soon as possible because grants change every financial year...and they won't be getting more generous.

 I dread to think at what level we are at, as we also have single glazed windows..but the grant isn't for windows this time. The only plus point that this 1947 pre fab building has is a metal roof instead of wood and roofing felt, and it has been"wrapped".. insulated on the outside.

I have myself "double glazed" most of the windows inside with the cling film designed for the job..but that doesn't do a huge amount. It does keep the birdsong out....which does lead one to ask how loud is birdsong that you can hear it through a single glazed window?

It has been snowing again, but nothing is sticking under 200m above sea level...so we can see it on the hills, but nothing in the garden or the road outside.

Another step forward

 One more appointment today, with the Stoma nurse.

A successful meeting, and an interesting character..in the army from school, then left to have her children..then back to work at 40 to train as a nurse.

She has a similar character to our District Nurse..and we get on well with her no fuss attitude as well.

She has concentrated in the urology section, and then the stoma department, training in Scotland and then London before returning here about ten years ago..she has two years to go, which should see Pirate launched with his stoma ok!!  The surgeon will sign him off as fit after a couple of days...but it is she who will say when he is fit to come home!!..ie when he can look after himself.. probably a week,..so I get a week off!!

The weather has changed again, a few icing sugar sprinkles on the hills yesterday and this morning, but coming back this afternoon it was gradually increasing..but still wettish sleet.

Let's hope travelling will be ok tomorrow as we are back at the hospital for the consultant surgeon interview appointment...a twenty minute drive short way, but could be half an hour on the slightly more indirect, bigger roads...but safer in the snow.

We had lunch out after the nurse appointment...just a simple meal, but nice to be out!!

Furniture sorting has continued...there has to be room for a hospital bed in our living room as our bathroom is downstairs.  It is a good incentive to use that reason to get done something that has been needed for a long time!!

I have got as far as possible with the living room for now, next stop is my study where some things have to go up to. Cue more drastic weeding...

Yesterday I heaved out a load of old cardboard boxes from the bike/ training room.....but what really needs doing is for Pirate to sort bike bits that won't be used so that I can sell them and boxes of paperwork so that he can find things instead of getting annoyed when he can't!

Getting my Big Girl Pants on and doing stuff that is needed has got him started anyway..even the small amount he has done so far is welcome. The thin end of the wedge towards actually getting it done!!!

One step

 First hurdles cleared, pre op tests all ok. Pirate needs to lower his blood pressure a little...he does stress over things....but they are all happy, and to top a good if lengthy hospital visit, the anaesthetist we saw is from NZ...her father's family was from the far North of Scotland. 

As she said herself, she isn't over here for the weather! One of her best mates is the daughter of friends in Whanganui...and although coming from a running and rowing background, she now runs and cycles....and knows all our friends in the local Ayr Burners Cycling Club !!

We said Kia ora to her...her reply was Kia kaha...stay strong.

Tidying and reducing

 I think I have found a way around the computer and printer not talking to each other....I have been battling through this for a day and a half....and remembered that I could use WiFi.....and just after 10pm I found the email. 

That will be tomorrow afternoon's job!

Meanwhile I have started the painful job of rehoming my old friends......books.....

Slow progress

 Every day at the moment seems to be a bit of this and a bit of that, never really getting a decent job done satisfactorily.

Saturday mornings we...or rather I..listen to the Out of Doors" programme on Radio Scotland. ( He slept through it, after making us a cup of tea....) That is 6.30-8am.  An interesting programme covering...well, out of doors stuff!!..with the added Mystery Noise, which this week was unsurprisingly a Japanese Macaque monkey. ( One went walkabout a couple of days ago...)

By 9 am I had had enough radio listening...so up to finish making breakfast and put the house to rights...Pirate eventually got up by 10!! 

We needed to see our landlord for some grant application paperwork to be signed. He lives fifteen miles away..and we were there by 12.30...he wasn't there, but his workshop worker was...

We decided to go for lunch at a friend's cafe in the local small town near his village...and caught him on the way back.

Paper signed, we will give that to the surveyor who will look at our lack of roof insulation...saving postage!

The water board were at our neighbours house, clearing the drains for her..they sent the camera down and along from our drain to check...nice and clean, thankfully...and he put the collar back on the drainpipe properly for us as well. 

Then Pirate decided that a good siesta was overdue...and I thought great..I can get on with the Ancestry research...but came to a stop after two minutes.

I need to get information printed as well as downloaded...if the computer crashes terminally, I don't want to lose anything or have to go back through Ancestry pages again to find things.

However the computer and printer are not communicating with each other...

Sometimes I can just go in and print....this time it is "getting printer information"....even though I have okayed the printer on the system.

And what does "print using the system dialogue" mean?

I think I need a resident IT assistant/nanny.....

On other research matters.. isn't it fascinating how handwriting has changed over the centuries, when looking at documents....

Afternoon out for myself

 This morning we had the preliminary survey...with luck we qualify for a new boiler (the old one is on its last legs) and roof insulation..first hurdle cleared....

I was supposed to be having a full day out on my own....and I caught the bus tomorrow at 11.40!!

Whilst waiting....

Rookery nookery....

Who are you looking at????...

We're going....

The bus I was thinking of catching going north from Ayr was just pulling out of the bus station....and the next one ready was going south...so I caught the bus to Girvan.

Our usual small cafe was still going..so straight there for lunch..but it was heartbreaking to see the state of the town...huge lorries still going right through the middle up the narrow high street, most shops boarded up or at least looking derelict.

Even the charity shops were closed....The Original Factory Shop gone..and replaced by something even cheaper and lower quality..but better than nothing if you don't have a lot of spare cash.

So after lunch a quick wander up the high street and back..

A beautiful find to raise the spirits.

And at least the harbour was looking busy.

Excuse the computer...not behaving quite as it should...

The sight of Ailsa Craig, ten miles away in the Clyde...

I found a little history to investigate on another visit...

Before catching the bus back to Ayr. 

It started fine drizzle as we arrived...and time was short after the late start, so back home on the bus.

Not much activity...no drawing done..but time out for myself.

It was a job to think what to do or where to go!!

Last ride for now

we managed to get to Glasgow before the worst of the latest storm...just thinking of Norway, where it was going to hit broadside.

Pirate had a roll around...and a chat with a coach who is retiring near the end of March. He is coming up to 65, has had a prostate scare, MRI checked and cancer clear...but has decided that life isn't just work! He is quite a good coach and can carry on with a few riders privately, while doing everything together that they want to, not waiting.

And coach took a photo of us as well.

 Now Pirate is doing his best to keep infection free before his op... No crowds, no shopping, no club dinners, and postponing friends coming to stay this month.

His phone is doing extra work...and he wonders why the battery runs down quicker than he expects!!