Tag: coffee

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A Day in the Life: From Blood Tests to Costco Runs

I was awake at six. Went out with my wife. She went to work. I went to the hospital for a blood test. Then a bus to a coffee shop. Priorities! Then another bus to Costco. Waiting outside for them to open at 10:00. 

Well, half an hour and £260 later, Costco shopping is done. Waiting for Uber now, as too much to get on the bus!

When I got home, it took me much longer to portion the meat for the two of us. Still, we have enough meat for 44 days. I also got yoghurt and cheese. I do prefer cheese from the cheesemongers, but the Costco stuff is better than regular supermarket stuff, and good enough for my sandwiches for work. Now, I think I might have a stroll to the pub for a couple of pints. I need to check when Amazon is arriving first, though. It’s Subscribe & Save Delivery Day.

I had 3 pints of London pride and a Lamberger and fries at the Queen’s head and then I’m on my way home because Amazon delivery flagged that going to arrive any time from 315 actually turns out that I’m more than one delivery but the first one only arrived at 5:15. But it doesn’t matter because I didn’t really wanna have any more to drink at the pub anyway. I feel quite tired, and I have to get up early for work.

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Daily Life Updates: Coffee, Weather and Gas Works

I’m off today and tomorrow. I woke up a couple of times in the night, but I didn’t sleep too badly. I got up with Kathy and made her coffee and saw her off to work, but I’ve got a bad pain in my lower right back this morning when I move, it hurts, and I’ve had this pain there for some time on and off, but it’s particularly painful this morning and keeps giving me sharp Twins when I twist or move around. I’m sitting quietly at the computer at the moment, making some updates, writing in this journal, and thinking about doing some gardening later if my back feels better and the weather warms up a little.

Somehow, my main glasses ended up in the bed overnight, and one of the arms is broken, so I’ve had to tape them up. I’m going to be going to the optician before too many more months have gone by anyway, as I’ll be due for my annual eyesight check by the end of the year, and I like to get those done and sorted, new glasses, before my license renewal for my birthday.

Talking about the weather it’s a bright sunny morning outside the temperature at the moment is 47 Fahrenheit so it’s not too cold but it’s supposed to be in the low 60s this afternoon so I think I’ll wait for it to warm up a little and the sun goes round the back as well in the afternoon, so it’s likely to be a little warmer out there. I know I’m being a big softy, but so what?

I’m on my second mug of coffee, and I should think about having something to eat before too much longer, probably a bacon sandwich.

The gas people are working outside the little way up the street towards the small green at the moment, so they’re not right outside, but I can hear them backwards and forwards. They connected our new piping to the house. We had the gas off earlier last week, and that side of it is done, but they’ve got the work to do out in the street now, so we’re getting on with that. I spoke to the guy who came and put our gas back on, and he told me that the new plastic pipes that they were installing are guaranteed for 100 years, so let’s hope they last that long.

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Recovery Under Way

I’m not allowed to lift much. I’m not allowed to turn my head much. I’m not in any pain, just discomfort. I feel rather drained, but other than that, I’m fine in myself.

I have a ton of jobs to do around the house, but I cannot do the mright now. I wanted to get out in the garden and get some stuff sorted out, but it will have to wait.

What can I do right now?

Well, I can sit here and write like this. I can read books, blogs, and magazines, and I have many of each, so no shortage there. I can take myself out for a walk. That’s fine as long as it’s not raining or too cold. I can listen to music. I can watch TV, which is my case will mostly be YouTube videos of interest. I can do some photography editing indoors, and if I go out for a walk, I can take my camera with me. I could walk to the pub for a couple of beers, as I’m not on any medication that would prevent it. At the moment, though, I’m not really feeling like that.

Right now, after I’ve posted this, I’m going to go get myself another mug of hot coffee.

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Under The Knife

This time tomorrow, I could be under the knife. I will certainly be in hospital in any case.

I’ve had this annoying cough for some years now. Lingering coughs should be investigated, of course, and it was.

I had a CT scan, which revealed extra growth around my thyroid. Then I was sent to the Royal Marsden for a PET scan to determine if I had anything malignant, and after a worrying wait, the result was negative.

It seems I have thyroid nodules, which apparently many people over 50 get. Most people aren’t even aware of them, but mine have grown inwards, pressing on my oesophagus and windpipe. This causes me to cough when I sit down after walking, and also after eating.

It doesn’t appear to be getting any worse, but it’s not getting any better, and it can be quite embarrassing when in public. Coughing my guts up for ten minutes in a restaurant, or on public transport, certainly gets disapproving looks and people moving away from me on the bus or train, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hopefully, the operation to remove these nodules will cure the coughing, which can be quite tiring for me at times, even when on my own.

There are risks, of course. One is that my voice could be affected, and the worst-case scenario is that I could lose my voice altogether. Some would welcome that, methinks.

Selfie with a coffee


Today, I can eat and drink normally. I can even have water and black coffee as late as 6 am tomorrow, and it’s fortunate for me that I drink my coffee black these days!

Hopefully, the postoperative recovery won’t be too painful or take too long, and I’ll be back in the swing of things soon.

Perhaps I’ll take up singing if this cough is finally dispelled.

What’s that? You’d rather I lose my voice altogether?

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Still on Lockdown

Several weeks have passed and we’re still on lockdown. Essential workers only to travel. That’s not really happening as too many people are travelling on buses that don’t need to be now that it’s free.

The back door thing means that passengers are separated from drivers, but that doesn’t stop the passengers from standing or sitting far too close together. That, in itself, is going to have a detrimental effect on the spread of Covid-19 and means we could keep spreading it around longer and suffer the trials and tribulations of lockdown for longer.

I’m busy reporting and recording anything I find that contravenes health and safety and Government guidelines around the workplace.

Coffee Break
Taking time out for a coffee.

It’s time again to go and make some safety checks around the garage, once I’ve sunk this coffee.

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A Chill Day

I’m not one for lying in bed all day, even on a day off. I feel that’s wasting precious time off! I got up around 8.45, although I had been awake for a while before that.

I finished the coffee and made another pot

Coffee from Pact

This coffee from Pact is rather good. We’ve been having deliveries from them now for a few years and they never disappoint. It’s great that we can regulate the deliveries to suit our needs.

I got on with responding to some emails and then ended up having a few, sometimes heated, discussions on social media about the coronavirus situation which is worrying most people to some degree in one way or another.

During the morning I got a bit peckish. I’m never one for wanting to eat breakfast as soon as I am awake but by eleven I was ready. I made some bacon sandwiches. They filled the gap!

More reading and writing in the early afternoon and then I got dinner ready. I made a chicken casserole with some thighs and added onions, garlic and tomatoes. Served up when Kathy got home and had with some left over rice

Watched some programmes on Sky Arts in the evening. Joni Mitchell’s 75th birthday concert from 2018; The story of Fairport Convention and then ‘I’ll Be Me’ about Glen Campbell’s right with Alzheimer’s. That was a rather sad end to the evening. After that, just before 11pm, we went to bed.

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Hospital Appointment

I was awake this morning around 7.20. I toyed with the idea of trying to go back to sleep but by the time I had made the obligatory bathroom visit I was too alert.

Time to go to the kitchen and make a pot of coffee. That done, I went back to bed for another hour, sipped my coffee and read the morning’s news on my iPad. News has changed over the past few days; Brexit has given way to coronavirus or Covid-19 to give it its official title. We’ve had four deaths so far in the UK. All four were reported to have established underlying health issues before their demise. It’s still a bit concerning of course, as I’m in one of the higher risk groups myself, being in my sixties.

Had a quiet morning and a bacon sandwich for lunch before heading out to go to the hospital for an appointment regarding my hernia. We got there in good time and waited quite a while as they were running about 45 minutes late.

I’ve got to have a colonoscopy and endoscopy to check everything is OK before they do anything else, so I just have to wait for an appointment for those to come through.

As we left the consultant’s office disaster struck. As I put my shoulder bag back on, my mobile phone fell out and hit the floor. It broke the screen protector and also the screen itself. Now the selfie camera doesn’t work so I have no Face ID. Everything else seems to be working though.

Cracked iPhone XS Max Screen

We decided to get a new phone so we’ve ordered an iPhone 11 Pro Max from Apple and it should be here in about 4-5 days.

Kathy is making dinner right now. We had some rather tasty fried rice and left over ham, along with some steamed cauliflower and runner beans.

Sat and watched three episodes of The Coastal Path with Paul Rose on BBC2, followed by University Challenge and Miriam Margoyle’s Fat Adventure.

Went to bed around 10pm.