Seen better days...

Went to see Philomena yesterday the afternoon - really enjoyed it. What a story. I must say, it was pretty easy to spend a loose day loose in town.

When we came back to the house in the evening, it was Not Too Bad! There wasn't too much dust at all. Well, there is lots, and there will be lots of cleaning, but the rubbish bag curtains saved all the other rooms. The space created by making a hole in the wall between two small box rooms is going to be great.

This morning I didn't go to the Zoo Talk, unfortunately. Well, fortunately. I had a long awaited appointment with a rheumatologist. But first, I had two sweet young Irish lads practising on me (it's a teaching hospital and they asked if I minded).

I must say, it's been a long time since I've had a handsome young man squeeze my hand, and look into my eyes and murmur, 'Tell me where it hurts'...

In fact, I had two of them at once! They poked and prodded and took notes and tried out all their wee routines. At one point, I was lying on the bed, fully clothed, and they were squeezing my knees. I suggested that I take my jeans off, all the better for squeezing. I think they were too polite to ask.

Then the specialist chap breezed in. Gryff Rhys-Jones without the humour. Very brisk and business-like, and a bit scary. He sat down, and said snappily to the lads,

'Well? What's your diagnosis?' (Or it might have been 'prognosis' - I wasn't paying attention).

Anyway, he did the same things again, stopping to explain things in muttered medic speak, and to ask them tricky questions. They looked slightly terrified the whole time.

His conclusions, and they came in a flurry, and I'm going to have to ask the doctor what he said, was that it's not what I suspected (every form of arthritis merged into one) - one knee will need doing at some point, and I've to go to physio for exercises to strengthen my thighs and shoulders, which will help with the sore legs and arms. I did check to make sure this was his conclusion. Yes. Physio.

I'm not convinced.

Though I did not voice this opinion to him!

My sore forearms are caused by my 'tennis elbow' or was it 'golf elbow'... I heard him explaining the difference to the lads young doctors.

Two hours later I emerged. I had the car, so I popped along to view the Bridge. And have a scone. It's hard to take a photo of the Bridge in bright sunshine that hasn't been taken a million times, so I chose this one of an old yacht club building instead, which has seen better days. A bit like myself...

I'm now in a nearby cafe with free wifi and full of yummy mummies and toddlers banging on the windows (inside). Will pop home soon and inspect today's work.

PS a fortuitous meeting yesterday with a friend and her man friend (boyfriend doesn't seem right in your 60s). He was a keen photographer. I showed him my camera. He has the Olympus before this one, and loved mine. He found a wrong setting deep in the menu that I'd inadvertently changed a wee while ago and had been worried for ages about the poor quality of the photos. Result!

AND he said I could borrow his 300mm lens for the safari!!! Result!