34 degrees in the yarden

Today started better than it ended last night, albeit that I was in A&E at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary when Sunday became Monday!

We went to the hospital on the instruction of a doctor following a NHS 111 call. We were worried about Mr hazelh's experience of extremely high blood pressure, racing heart rate, and palpitations over the weekend.

Mr hazelh was called through for examination/tests/treatment almost immediately on our arrival at the hospital at 7:20pm. This gave me hope that we'd soon be home again. I was wrong: we left over 6 hours later, meaning that we didn't get to bed until 2:30am. Fortunately I had packed for a long wait, so entertained myself in A&E reception by catching up my blipfriends, writing a blog post, checking my email, and marking up interesting shows in the Fringe programme. It almost felt like I was waiting in an airport for a delayed flight - except that I was worried about my husband's health. (My own heart rate was racing by this time too. Normally it's in the 50s; it was in the 80s for the whole time that I was seated in A&E reception.)

The good news is that the medical staff couldn't find anything physically wrong with Mr hazelh, so the current theory is that he is suffering from stress. He has been given an appointment with a consultant on Tuesday to follow up Sunday night's tests and check for anything else amiss.

Today (proper) has been very busy, but I somehow seem to have survived on the 3.5 hours of sleep that I managed to bank before my alarm went off at 6:00am. My first appointment of the day was the dentist, then Mr hazelh and I stocked up at the supermarket for the next couple of days. After lunch I prepared accommodation for Winsford and LauraMuir, who are staying with us this week. I had hoped to get on with some gardening, but only managed to sweep the front yard in the soaring heat (blipped) before Winsford arrived.

Winsford and I fitted in a game of Scrabble while waiting for LauraMuir to join us at the flat. Then the three of us left Mr hazelh (with Jon for company) to walk up to our book group meeting at Ridgeback13's house.

Book group was as fab as ever: great company and conversation, amazing food (as blipped elsewhere by Ridgeback13 and LauraMuir), refreshing drink (blipped by Winsford), and the bonus of Paisley the dog to pet. Only one of us had managed to get through the entirety of The name of the rose, so we had to be careful when discussing the book. ('Discussing' is perhaps too strong a verb in this context. 'Mention' might be more appropriate.)

Back home again, I watered the plants then fell into bed in the hope of a better night's sleep. Tomorrow will be very busy too.

Exercise today: walking (18.522 steps).