Roundhay Park

THURSDAY

A trip over to the Spire Hospital at Roundhay, Leeds to see my cardiologist. It's almost a year since my ablation so I was due for a review. Things have gone very well and he has now taken me off my remaining medication except for Atorvastatin which he recommends on age grounds alone.

The 230 mile round trip was interesting. I had allowed myself 45 minutes leeway on the trip to Leeds, but as the journey progressed I  heard traffic announcements on BBC R2 and saw the satnav ETA climb by 40 minutes.  Fortunately by the time I reached junctions 22-24 the delay had eased to 18 minutes and I arrived at the hospital with plenty time to spare.

The journey home was more interesting.  An incident on the M62 near Birch Services resulted in a rolling roadblock; congestion due to flooding on the M60 meant a clockwise route to the M56 during which I was passed by several unmarked police cars driving very fast. Then, on the A55 near home, a convoy of several police motorcyclists, three black Range Rovers and marked police cars heading in the opposite direction at speed. I guess it was Rishi Sunak heading home for dinner after visiting North Wales today.

The photo shows some of the swans on Roundhay Park lake. I had a walk around the muddy lake perimeter after my hospital appointment.