Gate with character

My hospital appointment for the second progress checkup and x-ray for my wrecked wrist was for 9.00 am. Originally I thought I'd need to get a taxi over, but common sense prevailed last night and I decided to set the alarm and get a bus instead. It's strange, but very often in situations like this my body clock kicks in and I seem to be ridiculously aware of the need not to oversleep. So I woke at 3.00 am and again at 5.00, and there was no sensible course of action but to hit the snooze button when the alarm did its thing. I was sufficiently awake by 7.20 to perform morning ablutions, grab a bite of brekkie, and check email, all in time to get to the bus stop shortly after 8.00. Even allowing for a 15-minute walk from bus to hospital, I still go to the Fracture Clinic at 8.40, resigned to the prospect of queueing in the corridor until the door opened to let us in.

Not a bit of it! The door was already open, the reception desk was manned, the dreaded place-in-queue number dispenser was in operation -- all of which meant that I was back on the street by 9.45, processed, x-rayed, examined, orthopedically spoken to and next-appointment made. The word was good: the break is mending well, there's no reason why I won't be back to full mobility afterwards, and the pins are to come out when I return two weeks from now. The only downside is that my appeal to be unplastered and fitted once again with a velcroed wrist brace was turned down, so I'm still stuck in this wretched cast and have to survive two more weeks of discomfort and inconvenience. Still, the next appontment is for 4th September, three days earlier than originally scheduled, and 'the pins will hopefully come out then' has changed to 'the pins will come out'.

It was back to bed for a lie-down when I got home, and I didn't surface again until almost 2.00 pm, at which stage there was an email and a message on the answering machine from Derek, saying that his new iMac had arrived and confirming his suggestion that he bring me over to and back from his place to meet the new arrival. We had a great evening. The new machine really is a beauty, and Derek did a great job over the weekend constructing a wonderfully neat and compact made-to-measure desk unit for it. He got an AirPort Express wireless base station while h was at it, so we set that up to give him wireless music from the new iMac to his hi-fi system.

We discussed strategies for transferring over info from his old eMac, during which process I got to see some fabulous photos he's recently taken with his Canon G7. If things go according to plan and Derek joins the Blipfoto ranks, these gorgeous images obviously won't appear here, which is a terrible shame, but we'll be in for some rare treats in the future. I was aware all the time of my own Blip need. I took a few shots in Derek's garden, but the results weren't great because of failing light and the absence of image stabilisation on my camera. Fortunately I'd noticed a neighbour's rather down-and-out garden gate as Derek parked his auto, and I pointed my camera at that in desperation as a parting shot.