A cloudy damp sort of day. The roofing team didn't arrive, as the replacement Velux windows have yet to arrive for installation and completion of the tiling work. After breakfast, I took a bus to town, and walked from there to the School of Optometry for an eleven o'clock eye test, with a new young optometrist called Joanne. The examination room now has a new piece of kit that automates changing the selection of lenses through which you peer at the eye chart. Notes are made electronically each time a lens is exchanged, thus eliminating recording error. The device makes strange robotic noises on booting up. Quite bizarre really!
I'll have another session in a month's time to complete testing, with a view to getting on the waiting list for another cataract operation. The left eye cataract was unevenly placed so, I had a clear patch, bottom right of the eye, but the right eye is dead centre and the fog is consistent. Thank goodness my left eye is good now as I'd be in trouble if both eyes had cataracts.
I walked back home directly through Bute Park. It took me just under forty five minutes. Next time round if the weather is fair, I'll walk both ways. It took me twenty five minutes to walk from Westgate Street out to my destination and I had to wait for a bus which with the wait at the stop fifteen minutes to get me to town. Legs are a bit more reliable than buses, sad to say.
After lunch I went to the GP surgery to have my blood pressure taken. The diastolic pressure is normal, and as ever, the systolic is up a little after walking to the surgery. Given a bit longer to settle down before taking the readings, systolic pressure could well have dropped to normal. Nothing to worry about. Nurse warned me about taking it easy after the op. I'm never sure what people mean when they say that. A doze in the chair after lunch? I do that anyway. I'm back to walking 10k mostly in fits and starts during the day. Today was an exception, packing in the distance, before the time I normally go out for a walk.
I called into St Catherine's to see if I'd left my grey beret in the sacristy, but I hadn't. Then I went to St John's to check there, calling at Tesco's on the way to buy the weekly foodbank offering to leave there. No beret there either. It's nowhere to be found in the house. I can't figure out how I lost it and feel sad about it. When I got home, I tried having a 'take it easy' snooze in an armchair to no avail. Two of the roofers came by to carry the old Velux windows down from the loft room and deposit them in the skip, which could be taken away this evening or tomorrow maybe. Skip providers are pretty busy these days it seems as there's a fair amount of renovation work going on as properties change hands, especially in Pontcanna, where house prices have risen phenomenally in this now trendy neighbourhood.
In an unusual initiative, a collection of government officials have today published a critical declaration of concern at the policies of their political leadership in continuing to support the Israeli leadership's war on Gaza when it is producing a humanitarian catastrophe for oppressed Palestinians, with unrelenting attacks that are costing such death, suffering and danger for so many. 'Enough is enough' they're saying, echoing the concern of so many aid agencies over the past several months. Talks about a truce involving hostage release are said to be continuing, but it's hard to imagine how this can succeed while both sides continue to fight to the death. A crime against humanity, as if the Holocaust never happened.
After supper, I wrote another talk to record for Basma, then whiled away the evening 'taking it easy' with a few episodes of 'Bones' before early bed.
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