Back on hold

The day started with rain and only dried up after lunch, so my daily exercise started indoors only, pacing around upstairs and downstairs. Just before lunch, a phone call from the administrator of the pre-op unit at the hospital, sounding very apprehensive, to tell me that the op has been postponed for three weeks.

Looking at the news these past few days, it didn't come as a surprise, I half expected it and said this to the bearer of the bad news, and said I understood why. She sounded relieved. There'll be others who are sicker, feeling even more desperate than I am, who won't understand, who'll just see it as another NHS failure to meet its duty of care to all citizens and be angry and upset. What a job, to have to explain the reality to all the people whose hopes are being dashed.

Long waits to be operated on, which I have experienced on a couple of occasions, were due to shortage of anaesthetists. In anticipation of the increase in patients needing life support due to the covid spike, surgeons and anaesthetists need to be on standby, clearing diaries to return to the crisis front line. Will just a three week delay be enough? I'm doubtful. 

Having just resigned myself and adjusted to life in confinement, it's back to what passes for normal for the next five weeks before resuming self-isolation. I celebrated with a walk to the shops in search of a small cake tin and a bottle of brandy for Clare - with extra time in home confinement with me, got her started on cooking Christmas cakes, several of them, different sizes. 

Then I went for a walk in the park and took a few photos before tea, and completed my regular mileage quota for the day outdoors again. My legs complained a little at walking bigger distances in a straight line without stopping, just after a few days of being indoors. Adjusting to change, physical or mental, takes longer as you get old, I guess.

In the evening BBC Four celebrated the 80th anniversary of John Lennon's birth, with a showing of the 1964 Beatles movie 'Hard Day's Night'. It came out in the middle of our first year together as a couple. We loved the songs then, and can still sing them from memory, even if lyric details are a little garbled on times. The whole 90 minutes film is chock full of songs, a whole long playing record's worth. Its witty dialogue, comic scenes, superb visuals and editing, are a delight, quite innovative to pack so much in at that time. It's like one long music video, fifteen years before MTV popularised pop song singles videos. 

There were also a couple of documentaries fronted by Yoko Ono, featuring Lennon's post Beatle songs, mostly written after he migrated to the USA in the seventies. Interesting stories and music, either unremembered or new to me. A remarkable creative man, a life tragically cut short.