Into the Light

A visit-the-sick afternoon. Sometimes I get to feeling a bit sorry for myself because of all the health problems which have been proliferating over the past few years, but my problems with heart and prostate and hip and wrist fade into nothing compared with Susan, my next-door neighbour.

Her latest misadventure involved surgery at the beginning of the week to remove a tumour from inside her mouth which had been discovered when she attended the Dental Hospital recently. She'd been given dire warnings of what would be involved, and told that her face would need to be partially rebuilt afterwards. But she proved all the medical experts wrong, the procedure was much more straight-forward than they'd expected, she was in great form this afternoon, she'll be sent home on Tuesday for a few days until a bed is available for convalescence and respite care.

I spent as much time with her as was permitted and we had a good old natter (well, Susan did most of the talking). I stayed on a bit after I left her and had a coffee and a slice of cheesecake in the ground-floor café. I nearly collapsed when I heard the price: 6 euro 35 for so-so coffee in a paper cup and a very small slice of cheesecake -- talk about Ripoff Ireland!

I was back home by 6:15, successfully managing to shelter from the heavy rain shower which timed itself perfectly just as I left the hospital.

This drive-by reject (from the upper deck of the bus) almost was today's blip, but I preferred this shot of the man with the stick doing an impersonation of Close Encounters or some such Sci-Fi movie.