Keep off the grass

- it's a helipad!

Spent the morning at school doing the Race for Life walk with the children (4 circuits= 1 mile) and then caught the bus to Gloucester.

I had gone there to see a friend in Gloucester Royal Hospital. She'd had surgery this morning, so was still a bit groggy. I did not stay long, as she was advised to sleep. Fortunately for her, she was able to have keyhole surgery so won't be too scarred.

While I was there in the infamous tower block (right hand side of image, completed 1975) my friend noticed a wasp. She called for a nurse, who pronounced that it was not a wasp, and then proceeded to hit it with a magazine. I noticed that many more were coming through the open window, so we quickly shut the window and I had a swat-fest. It felt very amateurish, like something from a Carry On film, not all like an NHS hospital.

The tower block came no.1 in a 1997 UK radio poll of " the building that listeners would most like to see destroyed". It's chuffin' wutherin' when the wind is blowing around it, but this was the first time I'd been there in summer, and seen the insect plagues. We call this style of concrete architecture 'brutalism' now. It's so retro it's coming back into fashion. The green building on the left is the 2005 extension, which cost about £50 million. It has green flooring throughout, to reflect the green of the Cotswolds. I've never had cause to go in there, but I'm curious....

Gloucester Royal was also noted to have 'hosted' three out of 148 'never events' in 2013. These events include people having surgery on the wrong organ and being injured by a preventable fall whilst in hospital. The staff are overworked, but lovely.

I also did some shopping in Gloucester, then Steve and I went to a private view in Stroud. I was fortunate to get back to Stroud, as the bus was suffering from heatstroke and exhaustion from climbing hills. and broke down as soon as it got there. Several hours and a pizza later, we are now experiencing a massive thunder-and-lightning storm, of the type rarely seen in our county.