Coming home

Well, we laid in bed for about seven hours and slept fitfully, eventually getting up at four ahead of the alarms. Our taxi arrived at five to five and by twenty past we joined the check-in queue along with five hundred others taking one of four flights being handled by the Vueling desk staff all at the same time. The queue moved at a remarkably steady pace, with half a dozen desks open, and in twenty minutes we had deposited out bags and were on our way to the security queue, which took us another twenty minutes to get through. 

That was when I realised that I wasn't wearing my small wooden pectoral cross, bought in Thessaloniki in 1994. It has travelled everywhere with me since then, but this morning I guess it must have fallen on the floor in room 308 at Hotel Eliseos. There was nothing that could be done apart from phone the hotel reception desk, but I couldn't get through, perhaps because I was upset and used the wrong country code. I had to wait until we arrived home to call and leave a message on their answering service, plus a back up email.

The flight was full and twenty minutes late closing the doors. Perhaps because it was among the first out bound flights of the day, the pilot seemed to drive the aircraft rapidly along side runways where normally there's be a stately queue for take off. At ten to eight we took to the air, flying north west through mist and cloud as the sun was about to rise. Two hours and twenty minutes later we were touching down at Rhoose, having flown in to land from the West over St Athan air station for the first time I can recall. We phoned for a taxi from Dragon cabs in Barry, and were picked up fifteen minutes later. Home by half past ten, after a smooth journey, marred only by losing my cherished little cross.

I found two other small ones in my office drawer. With help from Clare and her jewellery equipment it was possible to enlarge a hole in the upper part of the cross, through which to hang a length of string. This for me isn't decoration but a statement about who I am and what my life is about. I'm not going to change this any time. I do hope the hotel gets my messages, and retrieves the original cross for me. 

We did a couple of loads of post travel clothes washing, responded to priority mail and messages, including a Windows 10 update for my office workstation, then after an improvised lunch, I went out and shopped for fruit and veg., then went into town to get a new CMOS battery installed in my watch, and acquire an new Post Office Money Card, as mine expires today. It only has a few euros left on it, but I found this kind of pre-pay currency card very useful this time around, and could afford to put fifty quid's worth of euros on it, from my recent earnings. 

After supper, we watched a 'Fake or Fortune' programme about the authentication of a Modigliani sketch  but both were rally too tired to take it in. How quickly the evening slipped by and left us ready for bed, 

Getting ready to isolate again

Another sunny day, after much rain in the night, despite forecasts of more rain today. I succeeded in getting out of the house to walk for an hour and a half before lunch. As it's half-term as well as lock-down, the parks are busy with parents and children. I saw two women of  a certain age, out with a lively spaniel sit down with their coffees on a park bench with a huge rain puddle next to it. The dog ran up to them, straight through the puddle, soaking them before attempting to climb over them with wet muddy paws in search of attention. They laughed, as much out of exasperation as anything. I don't know which is more trying, let loose in the open air after home confinement, children or dogs.

We took a look at the official self quarantine instructions from The Spire hospital. In effect, the same as those on the standard hospital sheet, a one size fits all prescription. Keep it simple stupid, I suppose. It's complete confinement to the house and complete separation for Clare and I for over next fortnight in spite of living in a bio-secure domestic bubble with no household visitors since Diana and Pete sat in our garden for tea over a month ago. In the end, getting the op requires  testing negative for covid-19 three days before, getting no other infection and keeping fit and well enough to survive the op. An obstacle course by any other name.

We watched another amazing episode of the art detective series 'Fake or Fortune? on Telly, then I did a little work on my novel before turning in. I'm beginning to feel as if I'm on the final stretch at last. Can I complete it before the op, and get it ready for detail and error checking, before the final edit? 

More time out

An overcast start to the week to the shops to buy some cooking apples for Clare to use in making veggie mince, ready for Christmas pies. She gave me a couple of bulky unwanted items to donate to one of the local charity shops. I soon discovered these aren't taking in any new items, thanks to the impact of covid-19 on their workflow, whether it is due to shortage of volunteers or sanitary precautions, I have no idea. 

It's clear however that all charity shops are suffering. Some are open, others closed pro tem or closed down altogether. There's no aspect of everyday life that isn't subject to the colossal impact of this pandemic. With both hands full, I couldn't then complete my veg shopping mission, so I had to take the donations back home and return to get the apples Clare wanted. I intended to shop in Tesco Metro, but for the first time noticed there was a queue of more than a dozen people waiting for admission. Unusually busy. Are people stocking up prior to lock-down I wonder? I bought cooking apples in the greengrocer's shop opposite, where there was no queue and no customers at that moment.

At midday First Minister Mark Drakeford announced promised new restrictions. These are due to come into force this Friday, lasting until November 9th, the day before my op - if it happens. For me it means an extra four days of being obliged to do what I'm already doing. Reading NHS Wales guidelines on-line was cheering, inasmuch as they are more clearly set out than stuff issued by central government. Outdoor exercise isn't something one may do, as long as you keep others at a distance and go directly to and from home, it's actively encouraged, for physical and mental well-being. National government has taken its lead from the bumbling vagueness and variability of Boris Johnston's pronouncements, and all of us are worse off for that. 

During my afternoon walk, I passed by the pharmacy to collect the revised Doxazosin prescription, agreed with the doctor, and got a few extra things from the nearby Co-op which I couldn't get in the morning.  I've got enough medication to see me through the coming weeks of quarantine now. The 4mg Doxazosin pills are the slow release version. It'll be interesting to see how well these work, given that the 8mg ones didn't sit well in my stomach throughout the day. It's good if medication can leave you feeling less worse

In the evening I intended to do some work on my novel but was captivated by this week's edition of BBC Four's 'Fake or Fortune' programme, about the investigation of a portrait reputed to have been done by Lucien Freud as a teenager. The history of its origins led back to him, but there was evidence that he had denied authorship on the grounds that it was a work he hadn't completed, even though most of it was by his own hand. It seems he was very fussy about which of his works he allowed to go on sale. This was followed by another interesting programme about a billion dollar art theft from a Boston art collection thirty years ago, in which more than a dozen paintings were taken and have never been recovered. It's an story about the art haul being shifted from the USA by the criminal entrepreneurs in Dublin, which still continues without resolution today.

I then went to bed with my laptop and worked for rather too long, re-reading the first couple of chapters of my novel, correcting and revising them. In other words, avoiding drafting the concluding chapters yet again. I still can't figure out exactly how the story will end.