Window at the community hospital

What a palaver of a day

Mr C was doing his supportive friend bit by taking Colin, who is struggling just now, up Windy Gyle, so I had my own plan.

Plan A - GP appointment at 9.10, zoom Book Group 2 meeting at 10.30 and a walk with Ailie at 12.30.

Ailie phoned as her grandson has Covid and as she’d been with him she was off for a PCR test, so the walk was off.

Plan B - Chris rang while I was waiting in the surgery to say we’d have a walk at the sea asap, so I said I’d walk up to her house and go straight after the GP.

Plan C - GP said I needed bloods taken so to go back at 11.45. I called on Chris to say the seaside walk was off. So we are going to Cragside at 2.

When I went back at 11.45 after having a walk by the river, (not worth going home) I found the nurse wanting to do my BP review. It is far too high so I’ve to monitor it for a week. She noticed I had turned down the offer of statins and recommended I reconsider. I now have to ring for those blood results in 2 weeks and have a phone consultation with the GP in 4 weeks. We are so lucky to have NHS looking after us.

On to Plan D - by the time Chris arrived at 2.30 the sun had gone and she no longer felt like Cragside so we had a quick stroll in the woods. The big dog appeared with a young red squirrel in its mouth - it was quite stiff so had not been done in by the dog. It didn’t have the pox either so I wonder what happened. We see both red and grey in the woods now. It’s so sad to see. On the up side for wildlife, Mr C and Colin saw a herd of the Cheviot feral goats quite close up, near the Pennine Way path.

Needless to say our reckless plan of the ski trip has been shelved in the cold light of day. Macron is expecting a 5th wave and who knows who will be working in the hotel or staying as guests. And the transfer is 4 hours on a bus from Geneva with people from UK who’ll be without masks. We might ring Inghams up to find out more though!