Capped Lion

The day began with yet another visit to Beaumont hospital, this time for a follow-up MRI scan to establish how the prostate cancer is reacting to the hormone treatment. My appointment was for 10:00 am, and it looked suspiciously as if the three other people already in the waiting area were also scheduled for that time. I whiled away the waiting time with Sudoku on the iPhone, which whiled away the time nicely until I was called. I'm lucky, I guess, insofar as I go into the MRI feet first and so don't have any risk of experiencing claustrophobia. Indeed, when my twenty minutes were up I told the nurses that I found the experience quite soothing (the first time, they said, they're heard that description used). I'm due back with the radiation oncologist on 12th December. Let's hope, as he predicted last time, that the MRI result shows that the hormone treatment alone has already done most of the work in eliminating what shouldn't be there. He'll advise me then about radiation treatment.

After lunch it seemed like a good idea to go out for a walk. Part of me thought the tide might be in and that there'd maybe be some splashes to blip if I went out to Dollymount. As it happened the closest I came to a splash was seeing a pedestrian get a drenching just at the wooden bridge. We exchanged smiles through the car window. I parked just past the bridge and walked from there to the end of the Bull Wall. It was only 3:30 or so, but it was desperately dull and grey and featureless. Walking along the wall was quite an adventure, battling against the wind and trying to keep the camera steady for the blips I did blip.

There was nothing of value in the camera by the time I got back to the car an hour later, so I made my way to Clontarf Castle thinking I'd get something there. I'd intended using the camera inside, but I spotted this abandoned cap atop one of the stone lions at the end of the driveway and this was too good to miss. This spot was sheltered from the wind, and there seemed no chance that the cap would be going anywhere soon. I couldn't help wondering how got it got there, though, and why such a serviecable cap would have been left there. I rearranged it a little bit, giving it a more jaunty look before blipping it.