Oh bum!

I give thanks for giving up on my online quest for nice big knickers for small bums...clearly if you want to cover an osotomy bag with something you'd not cringe to uncover (even all by yourself at home!) you are better off being fat. I'm off to eat biscuits to solve the problem and cheer myself up in one easy (lack of) exercise!

I give thanks for the delight that is Mary Beard's Meet the Romans. She herself is a delight to me for being a female TV presenter not in the first flush of youth, without a great deal of makeup and adornment and with loose long (grey) hair and sensible shoes... I love her enthusiasm and breadth of knowledge but also the subject matter - the history of ordinary people's everyday lives. I find that so fascinating...She isn't mealy mouthed either, which is a good job in the circumstances...

No sign of the nurse I hoped was coming to take some blood.The doctor didn't know when they could fit me in at the surgery and the community team didn't know if they could either but I thought it was worth a try...I know I'm off their care list now but I find it so hard getting out and about. I have to have some more tests to see exactly what's going on with the iron. It can be a non-absorption thing rather than a simple lack and I've been told in the past that the most successful treatment for kidney patients contra-indicated if you have had any diagnosis of cancer as it's a sort of growth hormone. It's a similar story for the drugs you have to take if you have a transplant so guess I won't go down that road either...I'm grateful I have a nephrology appointment coming up soon so perhaps they'll have some brainwaves there.

Gratitude too that when I went to close the living room curtains last night the people downstairs were twirling whirly things with real fire and multi coloured lights and when I went to close the bedroom ones a brightly lit tanker was heading out to sea.Have I mentioned how much I appreciate living here? For the super sauce I made to go on some ice-cream - stewed rhubarb and preserved ginger and for the spider running across a door just now. It was such an odd place to see one I thought it was some sort of visual disturbance at first. I love spiders! And thanks that it's not so wet today as I'm off out to acupuncture and the post office, by cab but still some walking about involved. Shame the sea is more calm though...I did want to see some big waves...