We wiz warned ...

I may not be a shepherd, but the sight of this rather amazing sky made me wonder just what the day was to bring - it woke me, actually woke me, at 6.44am, a good 20 minutes before the alarm that usually just brings me a little closer to consciousness, and I was out of bed getting my phone from the study and hanging out of the window in the time-honoured fashion before you could even say "first light". And it was indeed the best bit of the day, with a strong wind whipping up the Firth and whistling round corners, followed by slight drizzle that was succeeded by real rain about five minutes after we got in from choir.

Despite the ongoing misery of the sciatica - I don't think the Pilates helped as much as I first thought - the main focus of my day was another visit to the Ophthalmology Department  at Inverclyde Royal Hospital. It's been such a long wait, partly brought about by  their cancelling one a couple of months ago, that the original excrescence on my eye is long gone, but I was glad I'd kept the appointment alive for all the other miseries my eyes are capable of. 

This time I saw a charming boy - how can they be so skilled when they're still children? - who gazed into my eyes with lights white, yellow and red, peered at them from the side, anaesthetised them and then poked them with something (for a pressure reading - not the usual air puffs). I told him about the blocked tear ducts, upon which he put in some more anaesthetic and then stuck a needle into each of them. It was quite nippy on the nose-side of the duct; I reckon I'll pass on any further procedure, although the lack of salt water reaching my throat on one side might suggest such a thing. His boss came in to discuss this with me, and to tell me to come back any time, which is good to know. It took over an hour - Himself was falling asleep outside in a corner. (I needed a driver because of having stuff in my eyes).

We bounced back over the Firth, both of us starving, and I made pasta with pancetta and some veg and chilli, which we fell on like ravening wolves. Then I had an hour or so with the early evening News, feeling gradually more horrid as the codeine I took at midday wore off - but I went to choir because sitting is bad and I needed the distraction . And after choir I made a couple of crêpes for supper, using my French daughter-in-law's recipe and trouble -free technique. 

And tomorrow marks the beginning of Lent. The headlong rush of the Church Year never fails to amaze me...