unstuck

Record changed, until the next time. These are the allegedly slightly more waterproof variant of the previous pair, though splash-resistance and the ability to walk through medium-length wet grass and standard-depth puddles is all I really need. If the atmosphere really wants to soak you it's generally going to succeed, but I should no longer have the issue I had this morning when walking along slightly damp pavements to work; stepping in a puddle barely worthy of the name resulted in an immediate detectable toe-dampness via the gap in the impermeable outsole. I'll have to do a bit of extra walking over the next week to get them flexing in the right place and whilst the old ones had little sole left the fact that what remained was thin enough to reshape itself around cobbles and pedals meant that it was oddly comfortable despite the flattened cushioning. I still hadn't looked everywhere but some potentially endless tasks are best curtailed, especially when they can be curtailed on a 15% discount event (which, from the appearance of the third floor, was held mostly to help recently-arrived students from various recently-joined outdoor-activity clubs get rid of a bit more of their money).

In the morning it was time again to pop hospitalwards (though the Sick Kids' rather than the neonatal unit as previously) to see if the wingpiglet's neutrophil count was sufficiently within the normal range to not warrant being asked to pop back to have it checked again in another couple of months like last time. As with other needle-pokings, there's an odd delay between the poking-instance and the colapse of the face into an unhappy wail, though the squeezing of the heel to get enough blood out seemed to be more troublesome than the puncturing and less than a minute afterwards he had reverted to normal chirpiness and was nice and smiley when we went downstairs to chat to the paediatric haematologist. Unfortunately when Nicky rang back later in the afternoon to see if they had any results yet it turned out that they thought they might have lost the sample. They didn't insist on getting a fresh one, instead suggesting leaving it another six months but (seeing as this was already a 2½-month-later follow-up it'll-probably-fix-itself check-back and it's only a couple of minutes' wailing in total) I'm inclined to insist on getting another taken nowish, all data being potentially useful and there being the potential to get this signed off, reasonably likely given his general lack of unwellness. It would be interesting to know where the sample went, though.