Things are moving foreward

We had visitors yesterday in the form of our friends Rae and Malcolm. We sat in the garden at the requisite distance, and gave them cold drinks in throwaway cups. I know only one visitor is supposed to come at a time, but we could hardly leave one of them sitting in the car or ask them to take it in turns. It was really good to see them and have a good catch-up. That particular rule is foolish anyway; if one visitor has CV, the chances are their partner has it too; and if one is clear, they should both be clear. Likewise us: we wouldn't accept anyone coming into the garden if we had symptoms of CV, but the pleasure in seeing new faces more than compensates for a mild flouting of the law. Beside, we can now use the example of Dominic Cummings and cite pressing mental needs and the requirement, nay the necessity, of company to alleviate the symptoms of boredomitis.

I've finally finished my portrait of my grandson. As reported earlier, I have worked and reworked the face to try and get the shading right, but have finally stopped. I have come to accept it for what it is, so you will have to also.

In my previous blog (Hundon-honey) I spoke of the anguish of the many people denied proper care under the NHS whilst this pandemic rages, or awaiting follow-up appointments to check for recurrence of cancers.   Well, I have finally received a follow up appointment I was due for the chest clinic. It is to be a telephone appointment by the consultant, so I presume he will ask me to place the phone on my chest and take some deep breaths so he can check my breathing. He might ask me to pull my shirt up and put my hands over my ribs to see if I can feel any rales. I'm not sure what he'll do about the follow-up chest X-ray though; perhaps he'll ask me to stand in front of a bright light.

We are listening to the SpaceX launch sequence as I write this blog. It is the first human US launch for some time, since the Shuttle programme shut down. At T-22, the team is uncertain if the weather will be favourable of if they will have to abort the flight. If it does take off, it is scheduled to pass over Cambridge at 21:45 so we may be able to see it pass, although it is still quite light at these high latitudes. [Hot news: lift-off cancelled because of poor weather outlook over launch site].