Summer-prepared

Firstly, many, many thanks to everyone who commented on yesterday's 1095th blip: much appreciated. I'll do my best to thank each of you individually.

Today? Up early so as to be sure of getting to Beaumont Hospital on time for my stress test. This was originally scheduled for last Thursday, but I postponed because of my friend Niall's funeral. Today's appointment was for 8.30 am, and I got there in plenty of time. Way back in February I'd done a stress test before starting the 10-week cardiac rehab course, and today's test was the final wrap-up of that course. The idea to to get before-and-after snapshots of how the new refurbished ticker is going. Breda, our rehab coordinator, had been fully confident that I'd do a lot better today than I had done in February, and she was right. Back then, I'd only managed a paltry 4:22 mins, but today I go to 9:00 mins on the treadmill before deciding that I'd had enough. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have gone on a bit longer, but the machine is set to increase both incline and speed at 3-minute intervals, and the third certainly made me puff a good bit. Being out of breath was the only side-effect, though, and the nurses were suitably impressed with the heart-rate readings and gave me a firm, though metaphorical, pat on the back afterwards.

The rest of the day was busy enough, and it was after 7.00 pm by the time I got out of the house for a bit of a blip session. I drove to the Bull Wall and went walkabout in the pleasant evening sun. It was impossible to avoid noticing that the brightly-coloured lifeguards' shed has appeared on the Wall, which I guess is an indication that Summer is on the way. We shall see.