Lovely

Straight out this morning to the Nelson Clinic for COVID booster jabs. It was not the most well sign-posted place and receptionist even admitted that she did not know that the vaccination team were coming until they turned up that morning. It didn’t necessarily inspire a lot of confidence in the process. Nonetheless, we went to the designated waiting area and we called straight in. I don’t think I have had a vaccination booster that took so little time before. it was nothing more than give your name and, once identified on the system, the jab was in the arm and I was out the door. 

In an out of the surgery very quickly, so we took a walk to the new Raw Deli coffee shop on Kingston Road. We’ve watched it being gradually turned from a convenience store to a coffee shop, but I had never been in. We decided we would go and have a look and we had some coffees. I had a sausage roll and PY had a cookie. Very pleasant.

After a little bit of inactivity, we gathered some broken items  - mainly a lamp and a clothes dryer - and walked to Cottenham Park where the council had arranged for a temporary waste collection and recycling place to be set up so that people do not have to drive to the usual facility. This is great for us because without a car, it’s very hard to take the things that need to go to the recycling centre without having to pay to rent a car. We also got rid of a bunch of small electrical items that were broken. Hopefully they will be properly recycled into components.

When I got home, I started to feel very cold and in fact spent most of the afternoon shivering, until I eventually lay on the bed with the electric blanket on. I think this might’ve been a side-effect of the COVID jab. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but I wasn’t feeling brilliant. 

I had warmed up by 6 o’clock so I was okay to head out for dinner with M&R. First, we took a train to Streatham and bought a bottle of Prosecco to take round to their house for the pre-dinner drinks.  Then, we walked to The Italian bistro Streatham Hill and had a great meal. I thought the ‘lovely to see you’ sign at the entrance was a nice touch. R had pasta the rest of us had pizza. M couldn’t decide which pizza to have from a choice of two and they offered to make a half-and-half for him, which looked really good. 

It was after 10 when we were finished and we were invited back for drinks, but I still wasn’t feeling very good so we decided to head home. The next train was cancelled for some reason so we hopped on a 57 bus and we’re back home within about 40 minutes. I had a cup of tea which really warmed me up and then went to bed with the electric blanket on.