Damp Friday

Rain again in the night, 19C by day under cloud cover. and occasional showers. Not too unpleasant. It was a quarter to nine when I got up this morning. Nine hours in bed but only seven and a half hours sleep if my Fitbit is to be trusted. I must be in need of the extra rest.

The morning was given over to preparing a sermon for Sunday Mass at St German's. Clare made a salmon soup for lunch with flesh from the filleted carcass of the fish delivered earlier in the week. That was a very tasty treat indeed. Then a walk to the GP surgery for a blood pressure check. It's always up when I arrive there but normalises quite quickly to what it's meant to be.  Something to be thankful for. I wonder where I am in the queue for the gall bladder operation and what different having the gall stone removed will have. 

Yesterday I had some pre-cooked 'tasty' roast chicken slices for lunch, bought from the Co-op. The 'tasty' part was due to milk fats being used in the cooking, and the slices included a small portion of stuffing. It said so in the small print on the packaging but this wasn't noticed when Clare bought it. An hour after eating I started to develop stomach pains, that go with my stomach's inablity to process dairy fats. I took a couple of doses of Clare's Swedish Bitters herbal remedy with lots of water and slowly the pain subsided and my stomach started working normally again. 

Whatever the remedy contains neutralises extra acidity and stimulates the digestive process, and there are no further after effects. It's rare this happens now, as we are scrupulous in food purchasing, and avoiding dairy fats, but it would be good to get the op behind me. The cost of travel insurance much higher when you're on a waiting list for treatment of a known condition, whether or not the issue is under control. Insurance companies don't reward you for being careful with personal health condition.

Clare went to the end of term Amser Jazz session at tea time, but I had work to do, so I stayed behind, and went for a walk when I'd finished. It was drizzling light rain which wasn't at all unpleasant, just dampening. It was notable how empty the Fields were. I got back in time for the ten o'clock news, but fell asleep listening to it. Should have gone straight to bed.