Christmas 2014

Christmas Eve

I worked briefly in the morning.  The bosses made a very brief visit to our hidden lab, pausing only long enough to kiss Jo (the one female engineer), then rushing out, saying as they did so that we didn't need to stay any longer.  It was only 9:30.  We all looked at each other, then carried on working for another hour and a half.

I took M to her six week checkup on her hip.  Everything is fine.  It is amazing she has improved in six weeks.

John picked up Mary from Cheltenham station, but there was a bit of a mix up and she ended up waiting at the station for an hour.  It was lovely to have her back.

I cooked enchiladas as quickly as possible, as Mary wanted to go out to meet her friends.  I had a short walk for exercise, then went to bed at 11PM, as I feel a little rough with the pressure at the moment.  We didn't go to church.

Christmas Day.

It was a lovely day, and I really enjoyed having the family around.

There wasn't much time to open presents before church.  As usual we attended the 10AM service.  Quite by chance Andrew Spurr quoted statistics on poverty, from the report that Mary had produced from her work at the DWP a few weeks ago.  Mary mentioned this to him as we left.

Catherine rushed down from Chester, joining us just before lunch.  

We had a lightish lunch of brie and bacon baguettes (Rachel'

s suggestion), then headed out for a walk up to Broadway Tower.  The weather was brilliant, though cold and it was an excellent walk.  It was good to have M walking with us again.

Back home we opened the rest of the presents, then had the evening meal of lasagna.  Again it was lovely to sit together at the table and talk. 


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Orienteering Training - Woodchester

Saturday 6th December 2014

I dropped M off at Moreton Hill, then went to the training event (used to be called informal) at Woodchester.  They have changed the format slightly with more emphasis on beginners and training, and less on just another event.  I did a middle distance green course, which was fun.  The idea was to have plenty of changes in direction and to stimulate fast approach and exit form controls.  It was certainly a lit of orienteering in a short space.

I managed to loose the SportIdent printout, and the are no published results.

For once I recorded my route with Strava, and tried to plot it with QuickRoute, but it wasn't very accurate and I needed to correct virtually every control.  I will try that again sometime.

Return To Normality - Three Month Checkup

Wednesday 3rd December

I took today off as leave, leaving home at 8:02 to travel via the A44 to Worcester Royal Hospital.  I was lucky and found a space in the fourth row of the main car park, but struggled to reverse in.....  No, it no good, I can't manage to write an email such as mum would write.

Suffice to say, I had my three month appointment with the cardiac consultant this morning.  First blood pressure, weight and ECG taken.  I then saw the consultant (Dr Trevelian).  His view is that everything is okay.  Blood pressure on the right side (Dr Serenyi thinks it is a hint high), medication okay, no problems showing up on ECG, statins low.  Risk factors heading in the right direction.

I asked my usual question exercise, and his response was I should be able to build up to at least what I was doing before, but build up is the key phrase.  I discussed mountain marathons to give him an idea of what I might want to do, and he thought that come next year, that would be okay if I build up to it slowly.  Don't worry, I can think of plenty of reasons for not doing a mountain marathon next year, though a short audax cycle might be nice.

I went for a cycle ride, Honeybourne route, 17.2km in 50 minutes, the furthest I have ridden since my heart attack.  It was a wonderful sunny day.  I then went to the rehab gym in the afternoon, then had a brief solo bouldering session on the indoor wall to see how I got on - okay but hard work.  At least it elicited a response from some in the rehab gym as they walked past.  Very tired now, and as always (and is common in new heart attack patients), I worry if I have done too much.