A bright clear blue sky today with temperatures in the mid twenties and a pleasantly cooling breeze. Perfect! I was going to drive myself into Sant Antoni to meet Jayne for my medical inspection visit. Co-incidentally, Anthony needed to visit Banco Santander so he offered to drive me there and back.
Jayne must have said exactly the right things to the doctors who attended me. She's so fluent that I couldn't entirely follow the conversation.
The examination confirmed my feeling that the infection hadn't altogether cleared away, and I was prescribed another week's course to clear it up. I was just so relieved that my concerns had been acknowledged and acted on this time, it was like a great burden of anxiety had been lifted from my shoulders. Fortuitously the nearest pharmacy is in the same block as the Banco Santander. By the time I found the place, Anthony had queued, finished his meeting and was waiting outside when I emerged with my antibiotics. Our joint mission had taken a remarkably brief forty five minutes.
Later when I opened the pack, I discovered that I had been prescribed ten days worth of medication. Seven for the necessary second course, and an extra three days, just in case there are still residual signs of infection. That'll tide me over until I get home, and help make sure this doesn't make me ill just before or during the flight. At the medical centre Jayne handed over the small parcel Clare had ordered and had sent to Jayne's address - a Virustatic Shield - a kind of face mask covering mouth, nose and ears made of a special material which is hostile to airborne viruses. Special protection for air travel, twenty quid's worth to minimise air travel risk.
Anthony cooked a super chicken and savoury rice dish for lunch today. Feeling so much better now, I drove into Sant Josep to shop for weekend groceries and fill the empty drinking water containers, sixty five litres worth. I've noticed how much more I'm drinking now the average temperature has crept up.
As the sun was setting, I went for a short walk to complete my daily target, having covered most of the distance earlier in the day. I love the way the sun makes the dry grass fringes of furrows in the harrowed fields bristle with light.
Then when I got back, a phone call from my nephew Jules in Dubai to say that my sister Pauline, after a week's postponement is now slipping away. She's still conscious and lucid, and he urged me to call her and say goodbye, which I did. The conversation was a repeat of last week's, except this time she was not breathing through an oxygen mask. I understood everything she said, and she me.
This time I didn't break down and weep when I blessed her, but felt the sadness nevertheless. Nicky her daughter is with her keeping vigil. It's painfully tough for her.
I thought of her when I was out on the terrace looking at tonight's Strawberry full moon, and trying to get a few decent photos, which you can see here. I know how much she would love tonight's sky. Living for so long overlooking the Bristol Channel on Bleadon Hill, with a clear view of every kind of weather, good or bad, the family home is blessed with more than its fair share of sky.
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