I woke up two hours after going to bed to the slow torturous bleep of a smoke alarm. It was impossible to get back to sleep in between, getting up to empty my bladder, and I couldn't find the pack of ear plugs that Kath bought for me when I was last in A&E. Sheer torture. I had flashbacks about the three nights I spent in A&E following the stroke with different devices bleeping warning sounds as nurses did their night time rounds, an experience akin to a disturbing waking dream. Having lost three hours sleep, I got up at eight thirty loaded a rucksack with a breakfast picnic of fruit cake, banana and morning meds, then walked to St David's Hospital for a fasting blood cholesterol test.
It was windy with an unpleasant drizzle of rain, weather to wreck a brolly with. I knew a 61 bus was due when I set out, and went to the nearest stop with a shelter, only to see the bus pass me by. If I'd turned toward the stop in the other direction, where the bus was headed, I'd have caught it as the road was blocked for several minutes by a large van, and the bus had to wait at the next stop before continuing its journey. I had to walk the full mile to the hospital. Fortunately it wasn't a timed appointment. Two other patients were queuing to have their blood taken at the outpatients phlebotomy clinic. I didn't have to wait long and was soon eating my picnic breakfast before leaving. Rather than wait fifteen minutes for a bus I walked home and had a second breakfast.
The bleeping smoke alarm was still punctuating household peace, but Clare found the missing pack of ear plugs to relieve the anxious agony it generates. My hearing is still quite sensitive, to the point that loud high pitched sounds take me to the verge of pain, I was so grateful the ear plug pack wasn't missing, just hidden. It gave me an hour's respite before Darren, a 'Care & Repair' worker arrived to change the battery. Clare had contacted their help line while I was out.
Matt the plumber's apprentice arrived at noon to install the replacement bidet we ordered a few weeks ago. Unfortunately the one we had installed eight years ago after my surgery to treat anal infection started to leak a few months ago and couldn't be repaired. I don't think either of us would want to do without a bidet now, as we got so used to using it. It turned out the job couldn't be completed as the piping attachments for joining the bidet to the water supply are American not European specification. A workaround or some kind of adapter is needed. This leaves us without an upstairs toilet over the weekend. We must be grateful the house has two.
While Clare was out after lunch, I recorded and edited Morning Prayer and Reflection for the second week of Easter, and made the video slideshow to go with it for posting to YouTube. Then I walked in Llandaff Fields for the best part of an hour, and finished watching the episode of 'Blanca' which I started last night, rather too late to finish before bed.
When Rachel and I last talked, she'd just read 'Jack's Tale', about her Great Grandfather's time in America, and worked with me to correct the typos she found. She mentioned the Reggie Rabbit stories I wrote and read to her and Kath at bed time when they were young. I promised to extract them from my digital archive and send them to her. Tonight I got around to doing this, and re-read them for the first time since I transcribed and digitized the original written texts when I retired fifteen years ago. They were written to read aloud and entertain the girls before they settled down to sleep. When I read sections aloud to Clare I could hear my voice again as the young story telling dad I was fifty years ago. I was quite touched by this reminder of who I once was. So much to give thanks for at the end of a difficult day. And now bed.
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