Dem Boots!

Lots of errands to do today starting with coffee with Gill and Geoffrey where I met Sanay. She is going to organise me with cleaning

I drove her home and stopped at Sainsbury's on my way to East Leake. I explained to the bakery manager how badly ill I'd been on Friday night  after eating a baguette that had been dropped, presumably by an errant customer, in the rack of gluten free bread that afternoon.

She listened politely but it was manifestly obvious that she didn't understand the full nature of the problem with being coeliac. Must write to head office.

Off to East Leake to see Mandy and to deliver the photos taken on Saturday. Mandy gets a dog fix when Basil goes to visit her. She can pet him to her heart's content since she's not able to keep a dog of her own.

Back to Loughborough to see Aziz. I nipped in to Vodafone to ask about data roaming in Europe. Outside, I met a young lady wearing these remarkable pink boots. Her Mum told me they're on sale in Tesco. Will they have my size. 

I tried the chicken tikka van in the marketplace for lunch. The man there did understand about gluten free food.

While Aziz nipped upstairs to pray, I phone Vodafone and arranged data roaming for Europe. Another £3 on my monthly tariff.

Business not finished yet. Called in at Dunelm on the way home to take back a carbon steel wok I'd bought there two weeks ago. Only used twice with wooden implements, the teflon coating was coming away. Quite impressed by how helpful the staff were. They replaced it without a quibble. Was relieved to learn that mine was the only wok that had shown the problem.

Finally returned to the car to drive back to Shepshed and turned on Radio 4, where Eddie Mair announced that Steve Hewlett, who Eddie had been interviewing weekly for the last six months about his cancer and the treatment, had died. That experience certainly brought home how awful it is to live with cancer, trying therapy after therapy and finding nothing that worked, yet staying positive. Last week, the consultant had recommended to Steve that he should not go through another round of immunotherapy as his liver could not take it. I have to say that he sounded very frail.

I did weep.