Aftermath

I slept reasonably well, if a little less longer than usual, due to the need to change dressings in the night. The wound is open without the suture now, but at least it can heal properly at last. We had our Saturday pancake breakfast early, then went back to bed for a lie in and snooze until eleven. I walked for an hour and then cooked lunch. Today the wound is more painful and inflamed so I need to take several doses of Neurofen and one of paracetamol to minimise discomfort and pain. I've also needed to alternate activity and rest, to use my energy sparingly and not get exhausted. In other words, be sensible. 

When I was briefly awake in the small hours I remembered being anaesthetised and having a tight fitting mask imposed that was gently pushing air into my lungs, moments before I blacked out. I then recalled the same sensation when I was operated upon at the Spire last November - a mask like the one that scuba divers wear. On previous occasions the mask was more loose fitting with a tube into my mouth that was taken out when I re-surfaced. So, I wonder if this reflects the proliferation of the technique for assisted breathing with the oxygen or enriched oxygen mix being pumped in under low pressure, widely used to treat covid patients? It would certainly explain why I wasn't at all groggy when I came to, but felt as fresh and bright as I do when I sleep under an open window our outdoors in a tent. Extra oxygen to aid recovery maybe? A strange thing to be thinking about in between sleeps in the middle of the night.

I rested in the afternoon, then walked to Texco's for a bottle of wine and some olives, as Kath is coming tomorrow, driving their brand new Skoda mini-SUV on its first long journey, having collected it from the showrooms this morning. It'll be great to see her again in the flesh as opposed to on Zoom. Yesterday Clare took part in an all day symposium Kath ran about using dance with early years children. An very impressive piece of work. We're very proud of what she's doing.

Talking of early years work, Mark our violinist friend came around this afternoon to be briefed by Clare about accompanying her when she does her kindergarten eurythmy story telling session in school. It was lovely to see the two of them out in the sunshine on the patio piecing together the performance. Working with kids in this way is a new adventure for him, although he's no stranger making music with them,

This evening Clare had tickets for a Schubert Schwanengesange recital, by Gerard Finley accompanied by Simon Lepper in the Dora Stutzker concert hall at the Royal Welsh College, followed by a Q&A with the artists. I listened lying down on the bed for an hour and a half and then needed more fresh air before bed. For the first time, perhaps since the last operation, I can't remember offhand, I needed Clare to put a plaster over the wound before bed. It's slow drying out now the adrenalin which aids clotting has left my body. There's no escaping the aftermath of invasive surgery. It creates an opportunity for nature to take its course again in a wholesome way, and that's what counts in the end.

Editing, uploading and seriously good cooking

By yesterday morning I'd volunteered and been accepted to take charge of Mary Lewis' funeral, spoken to the funeral directors, to Phil the church administrator, and prepared the order of service based around her wish that it should be like her late husband's. 

Following recent conversations about my unpublished book with St Mike's Principal Peter Sedgwick, I gave him a copy to read and received invaluable critical feedback. After receiving his positive comment on my re-writing of the book's preface, I now feel confident about re-writing and updating the rest. It got me out of bed early after a late night to work on revising the first chapter.

Following this, I had a frustrating afternoon in the office, trying to upload the eurythmy performance videos to You Tube using the faster connection available to us there, as I worked on other things. I found  I had to to downsize the clips, was there was no need to show them at HD resolution. It took far too long to do it conveniently. After too much messing around and not concentrating on other jobs in hand, I realised I couldn't achieve with Windows Movie Maker for Vista what I'd been able to do previously with the Windows Seven version of the program. In the end, I had to do the job on Clare's laptop when I got home, the only PC I have with the capacity to do this. I was astounded at how long it takes to down-size and upload a fifteen minute video. It seemed to slow up the entire home network and kept me up late.

This morning I finished uploading the video clips, then went out and met Rufus for coffee at Cafe Castan on Llandaff Fields. We sat enjoying the sunshine as we chatted about his first three weeks in parish ministry. Such a pleasure to share his adventure in ministry. I learned from him that 'Becca in my tutorial group for the past two years had just announced her engagement. A pleasant surprise.

After another afternoon in the office, I returned early as I'd been asked to celebrate the evening Mass at St Luke's as Fr Mark is still on leave. Clare came with me and read the lesson, which was a pleasure, as we don't often get to share worship the way we used to do, with me travelling from place to place on locum duties as often as I do. Afterwards we had supper at the Cardamom Banlgadeshi restaurant across the road from the church - an enjoyable end to the working week with seriously good cooking, and not our own for once.

House painting time

Sunshine and blue skies are making life very pleasant this week for doing business as usual, strolling into town for a couple of afternoon hours in the office, and eating meals out in the garden. I woke up before six on Tuesday with some ideas to embody the plans I'm working on for a ministry development project with people in Cowbridge Benefice into an interactive blog site. I learned some new things about using the Google Blogger platform, which I've been using for nearly ten years, pushing me out of my routine comfort zone. The challenge will be recruiting people to make use of the finished product once we get it approved and launched properly.

Owain came over yesterday afternoon while I was out at the office and started cleaning the front facade of the house in preparation for painting. At last the weather is perfect and walls have had plenty of time to dry out properly for working on. Today while the front facade was in shadow we worked together on applying the first coat of magnolia paint up to the three metre mark. We'll have to get someone in with ladders or scaffolding to do up to the roof level, but already the rest looks so much cleaner and brighter that neighbours have started commenting about the state of their own. 

It's strange, I had plenty of energy for the job and worked right through to completion,  but when I stopped and started to stiffen up in the neck and shoulders, I was overwhelmed with tiredness and fell asleep on the sofa. One good thing about retirement is having the freedom to do just that. Stuff still gets done, but more recovery time is needed.

Clare's been busy in school with staff meeting and interviews to prepare for recruiting her successor, as she's announced her intention to retire, even though she may continue established kindergarten work. It's a good move, now that the school is expanding, to appoint someone new who can develop eurythmy teaching right through the school's increasing age range. She's been doing this over the past year and found development demanding on top of teaching and organisation. It would be nice to have more time together - something I was reminded of when we sat and watched the Llangollen International Eisteddfod together on TV tonight. How lovely it would be to have the freedom to take the week off and go up there next year. Impossible while it happens in term time.