Hairdo, long overdue

I woke up early on another bright and sunny day. Getting to bed earlier to compensate for losing sleep isn't easy for me, a creature of habit. Kath called and chatted on her way to work. I was clear headed but slow thinking, and took my blood pressure pill with breakfast an hour later, to see what difference it made to everyday light headedness. It was slower to develop this morning and not as intense. A brisk hour's walk in the spring air before lunch to get my circulation going was refreshing. Still a bit light-headed, but I didn't feel any worse. 

After lunch we took a taxi to visit Rumney for hairdo appointments with Chris. His shop front has been rebuilt at last following last year's attack by a local ram raider. It looks very smart and has reinforced steel rods planted in concrete in a row across the shop front to protect it against further aggression. I walked around Parc Tredelerch, while Clare was having her hair trimmed, enjoying the mild weather and the sight of prolific white blossom on hawthorn bushes around the lake. Traditionally known as 'May Blossom' it's March blossom nowadays.

I saw two peacock butterflies in separate places, their vivid colours standing out against the creamy colour of the reed bed. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough with my camera to take a photo. Then it was my turn for a haircut, the first since my stroke six months ago. Chris kindly drove us home afterwards in rush hour traffic afterwards and I walked for half an hour in Llandaff Fields as the sun was setting before having supper. All afternoon I felt slightly light headed, but this didn't impair my enjoyment of chatting with Chris or the sunny afternoon.

In the news, bombing of military sites in the Straight of Hormuz and the assassination of Iran's security chief has led to more revenge attacks on Gulf States industrial infrastructure. It will raise the price of gas and oil, depressing the global economy even further. In addition to attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israel has attacked Iran's energy production facilities without telling Trump in advance. Is the Netanyahu regime taking a leaf out of Trump's playbook by acting unilaterally? Is it a sign that there are differences between allies about how the war is meant to end, and what it aims to achieve? Escalation of the war seems to be the only outcome.

After supper I watched the last two episodes of 'Gli Indagini de Teresa Battaglia' set in the mountains of North Eastern Italy near the border with Slovenia. I was pleased to find how much of the Italian dialogue I could understand, given that it's fifty years since I learned the language and rarely had the opportunity to use it since - the last time was when I did a locum in Taormina fourteen years ago. Since then I've learned Spanish from scratch, and the similarities of the languages make understanding them both easier. And now bed.