Progress

I take back what I said about my GP yesterday. He was bang on with his advice about winding a bandage around my arm. When I did it up again this morning I noticed that the swelling had gone down considerably, and that the nasty-looking discolouration had also faded considerably. He'd also recommended that I alternate two Panadol and one anti-inflammatory tablet every six hours, explaining that these worked well together when taken this way. He was right. I feel much more comfortable today, even allowing for the occasional twinges of pain when I happen to turn my arm in a certain direction or accidentally do something with my hand which the wrist complains about.

I made progress today too with preparations for our holiday to Croatia at the beginning of September. Despite deciding in principle that Croatia is where we want to go, and despite reading up about different parts of the country and zeroing in on Dalmatia and the general area around Split as our preferred option -- despite all this, we still haven't done anything about actually booking anything. Things advanced a lot during the course of the day, and we've now narrowed our options down to two package providers, one which would involve first getting to the UK, the other which operates direct from Dublin. We'll decide finally over the weekend.

My wrist injury was beginning to seem like a bit of a fly in the holiday ointment too. The surgeon told me in theatre recovery that appointments would be made for me to return in two weeks for a progress checkup and in four to have the pins out. Despite this indication, an appointment card arrived in the post with just one date on it: 7th September, to see the surgeon at his regular clinic (which is the day before we plan going away). I contacted the hospital yesterday, I was put through to the ward I'd been in, and they promised to look into it. I got a call today confirming an A & E appointment for 8th August, at which time they advised me to inquire about the follow-up, pin-removal date.

So, not a bad day really (and the weather was even okay in spots). I went out this evening for a much-needed breath of fresh air and full of blip intentions. Not being a regular user of public transport, I got on the wrong bus, which took ages winding and twisting through obscure roads in equally obscure housing estates before getting me back onto the road I'd started on not very much closer to my intended destination. I walked to a bus stop to wait for the proper bus, and waited, and waited, and waited ... I was close to an industrial estate, the sun was casting interesting long late-evening shadows, I was beginning to fume at the inadequacy of our public transport system -- so I gave up on my original idea of going out to Malahide and settled for a short wander through the not-so-salubrious backwaters of rather run-down factories and warehouses. I'm glad I did now.

I mulled and hummed and hawed before settling on this shot as the Blip selection. Alternatives were this hydrant sign or this sunlit factory.