Up close and personal

The new iPhone SE needs an adapter to plug in a headphone jack. I ordered that and a case and they arrived today. I plugged in my headphones and took the combo for a wander round the block (Mahler's 4th symphony sounded wonderful on such a glorious day). I passed the back alley which opens onto the houses on the far side of my street and shoved the phone through the gate to catch what looked like Dominic Cummings breaking the rules big time (see extra), then I took a fancy to the bark on a tree I met along the way and blipped it. I'd done some weeding before the wander and did some more when I got back. While in the mood I decided to add pruning to the menu and cut back a tree and a rose bush that are encroaching into my place from the neighbour's. (The rose bush goes a bit over the top in terms of thorny protection — see extra.)

All this activity was leading up to an appointment with a hearing consultant. Towards the end of March it'd had a scary moment and took myself up to A&E because of sudden hearing loss in my left ear. There was hardly anyone in A&E and I was seen almost immediately. Hearing gradually returned during the time I spent there (three hours or so) while various tests were done, bloods were taken and people were consulted. I contacted my GP afterwards and he referred me to today's consultant. What a great guy he turned out to be! A detailed consultation led to him deciding that my experience had been cardiac related and he recommended that I have a cardiac re-assessment, get a neck scan done, and add a hearing element to an MRI I'm already waiting for to examine a lower-leg problem.