2007 — 6 August: pittance day!

Or, in other words, IBM's pension slips quietly1 into the bank account. Mind you, today's annual subscription to New Statesman magazine knocks an immediate dent in it but, so what? Her undelivered parcel from last Thursday, by the way, turned out to be the latest X-rays from hospital, completely unbent (thank you Mr Parcel Post). Am I supposed to examine them, do you suppose?

A tad of overnight rain has brought some very welcome relief to the high temperatures we saw yesterday. Only two fresh mosquito nibbles, too, on the old limbs despite sleeping on top of the bedding and wearing the jim-jam shorts. Let the morning routines begin!

Midday GP visit

The Cavalry is coming round to discuss the vexatious matter of better pain control. She's on a lower dosage of morphine currently than during her first week of the first cycle. But just before each topup is getting pretty damnable, and we both want this brought under control. The balancing act is to manage this without undue interaction with the rest of the meds.

She came, she saw, she prescribed. One remedy, which the surgery notes made apparent they thought we already had, is a liquid variant of morphine for a quicker-acting top-up jolt for what they apparently call "break-through" pain. The other, much simpler, (and not a "controlled drug") is a small pack of frozen peas, wrapped in a bag, and applied as an ice-pack. So, a quick shuffle down to the local pharmacy (clutching the script and a huge umbrella — must replace the missing smaller one) and we're all set. Plus, we shouldn't overlook the under-rated pain-killing properties of paracetamol. We won't any more!

Oh, and stop over-doing things. You're supposed to be taking things easy, Christa!

In the world of BBC Hi-Def

I stumbled across a deliciously froggy way of trying to demonstrate the difference between a standard definition TV picture and a High Definition TV picture. The original is a Flash demo on the BBC web site, but I hope they won't object to a tiny bit of static larceny. After all, I pay my licence fee!

SD
HD

A Good Day?

Sadly, no. Pain is never good.

  

Footnote

1  Barely a ripple; trust me!