Unexpected visitors

Richard and Chris are welcomed

An unexpected call from my brother Richard to say he and Chris would like to drive over to take us to lunch. We immediately said, "Yes please!" and booked the Half Moon Inn at Belchamp St Paul, a wonderful old, thatched pub overlooking the village green, with a good selection chalked up on the blackboard and all finely cooked. Ann had a hair appointment late in the day to which Chris took her, so they enjoyed a good session with Kelly in her new salon. 

We then watched a short film Ann had recorded, "Look at Life: Rebirth of a City" about Coventry's regrowth from the ashes of the war. Suddenly Richard called, "Pause it there!" It was a shot of the newly developed circular indoor market built to replace the old outdoor street market, and on a large stall at the entrance was a sign, "J, Cooper". The stall, selling fine china, had been owned by Chris's grandfather, and there in front, busy with a customer, was Chris's Uncle Arthur who had taken over the stall. Just inside, but out of sight, her father too was selling chinaware. The film was from sixty years ago, and an amazing coincidence. Richard used to help drive a van  and set up the stalls for them at the country's biggest china fare in Cambridge. Their stall was popular with Romanies who delighted in the brightly coloured goldleaf decorations.

Ann remains unwell with her heart condition. The blood report came back suggesting cardiac failure, and indeed she was coughing all night despite several pillows. She remains on the list for physical treatments in addition to the many medications, but it may be a long time judging by the state of the Health Service. 

My own leg pain has eased considerably. I have now diagnosed it as Meralgia Paresthetica, which is limited to one specific nerve, the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve. This seems to get trapped in the femoral canal - probably from sitting too long hunched over a keyboard. The whole nerve has now given up, leaving a patch of total numbness over the outer thigh but minimal pain. Fortunately, it is a purely sensory nerve with no motor fibres, so there is no accompanying weakness or paralysis. Numbness I can live with. Unfortunately, age dictates that my legs seem to get weaker each day anyway, so it gets harder and harder to stand up without using my arms, or to walk any distance at a reasonable pace. Because Ann was admitted twice from A&E outpatients, she has now packed hospital bags for each of us to take whenever we visit the hospital. It is very much a toss-up which one of us might need our bag first.

Chris and Ann

But while I remain mobile, I am grateful for what I can do, and this week I have a new, invited paper published in the journal, Galaxy.  I submitted it in November last year, but the reviewers wanted a number of changes that took longer than expected, and finally it is there in their Special Issue: A Trip across the Universe: Our Present Knowledge and Future Perspectives. My paper is a review of Galaxy Number Counts. Looking out into space in any given field of view, modern large telescopes see ever greater numbers of ever fainter galaxies per unit area as they continue to probe deeper, seemingly without limit. By counting the number observed at each depth, we can lay some limits to the shape of the Universe and its expansion history.