A brief visit to the GP surgery this morning for a blood pressure check. Yet again in the surgery it raises a frown. When I get home, and sit comfortably in an armchair, the readings average out close to the desired norm. Chairs in the surgery have hard surfaces, and without cushion support, pressure on my perineum causes pain. The discomfort leads me to tense my thigh muscles to reduce this. It isn't even the fabled 'white coat syndrome' many people reportedly suffer from in a clinical setting. You'd think the diagnostic process would be attuned to this kind of issue by now. I believe It's only around a century since this was introduced into regular medical practise.
Clare went out early to the University Optometry School that she visits as a glaucoma patient. She volunteers there to be examined by student trainees for a few hours. We met afterwards at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama for lunch and then a recital of two dozen German Lieder sung by a group of a dozen students working with half a dozen accompanists. It was superbly executed, with some remarkable young voices in performance, and challenging accompaniments from masters of the genre, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Mendelssohn. Almost all were unfamiliar, but well chosen for their variety and beauty. Several songs were composed by Clara Schumann and by Fanny Mendelssohn. Their works are gaining recognition nowadays, having been attributed to the men in their lives for the past two centuries.
We then walked into the city centre aiming for our habitual tea and cake in John Lewis', but having got up early, for several days in a row, I ran out of the surplus energy needed to inhabit shops, and headed for home on the 61 bus instead, to lie low for the rest of the day. I'm having to avoid pushing myself to exhaustion these days. Open unhealed wounds drain one's energy reserves, like recovering from surgery, so they say. It's the Feast of St Paul's Conversion today, I was too tired to trek over to St Luke's for the evening Mass, and disappointed about that.
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