Undesirable side effects

After a long and refreshing night's sleep, another Spring-like day to enjoy, and it's St Patrick's day too! I went to St Catherine's for this morning's Eucharist. We were the usual eight people plus Mother Frances. We chatted in the churchyard afterwards about how the past year had brought us back to value the scripture reading of the daily Offices, and how it enabled us to do without the frequent eucharistic diet we're used to, yet still feel fed spiritually. 

Francis told me that St John's now hosts a Russian Orthodox congregation on Sunday mornings, after the live streamed Parish Eucharist from there. St Luke's also hosts the Romanian Orthodox congregation that used to meet at St Dyfrig and Samson's. Somehow, covid closure and the long interregnum brought that to an end. Thank heavens Fr Edward Owen's appointment as Priest in Charge of Grangetown has recently been announced.

Mark and Fran phoned after lunch, gearing up to make a video artistic piece for Easter, using Fran's 'Nolli me tangere' icon and talking about it, with Mark playing a meditative piece on the viola. They've taken me up on my offer of videoing it, and the plan is to do this in St John's soon. That's be a nice challenge to do well. 

I cooked our lunch, and then went for a walk in a circuit around the Parish, taking in Thompson's Park and Victoria Park before walking down Cowbridge Road East to collect my prescription from Boots the Chemist. I spoke with the pharmacist about the side effects I've been experiencing from using the higher dosage of doxazosin. It's strange that the more physically well I feel with progress in the wound healing, the worse the side effects become. The last couple of days since speaking to my GP I started to regret having asked to continue with the 4mg dosage and have the extra 2mg dose supply to augment it if my blood pressure shoots up again. He agreed not to issue me with 4mg supply and take it back into stock. If I had taken it, not used it and returned it to the pharmacy, it would have been binned. I've got the 2mg and hope not to feel so groggy and not to have my blood pressure shooting up again.

Clare's morale has been boosted by having her ears cleared of wax and skin flakes which have reduced her hearing capacity significantly this past few months. She had to pay to get it done at a specialist clinic locally, but it's money well spent. We're not having to shout at each other across the noise of kitchen appliances quite as much now!

Rather than watch telly this evening I have been reorganising my recent photo archives to show Victoria Park, Thompson's Park and Bute Park separately from Taffside and Pontcanna photos. They don't all show a location, so it's better for anyone unfamiliar with the places but interested in the parks to have them grouped together.