Tuesday 25 April 2023: A run out to the Hope Valley

We had a bit of a relaxed weekend, but we were perhaps a bit too relaxed. The plan was to go and do the shopping and then go for my x-ray. But by the time we were ready to go out, we only had time to go straight to the hospital, dropping the poet’s old desktop off at Son #2’s on the way.

They’re checking to confirm that I have nocturnal asthma, but I think the doctor is pretty much of the opinion that that’s what I have. The chest x-ray was routine and we’ll have the results in about a week. It was the first time I’d been to Rotherham Hospital for a long, long time – apart from one routine scan, I think I would have been there more than twelve years ago – and it has changed so much in the time. It’s much nicer than it was and it looks as though they finally finished the building works that were taking so much time.

We did the shopping on the way home and spent Saturday night watching Britain’s Got Talent and other bubble gum for the eyes. On Sunday the poet surprised us with another run out in the car, this time in the other direction to Derbyshire. We had sandwiches in the car, helped by the dog, and a scenic drive to Castleton and around the Hope Valley. After dropping the dog off home again, we went to see the mother-in-law, and when we came back, after tea, we binge-watched several episodes of Malpractice, which is the latest series from the makers of Line of Duty, so we knew it would probably be good.

Yesterday morning was pretty much taken up with preparing for and taking part in the Teams video conference for Mom’s probate. It was my turn to hog the office and talk over everything, which made a nice change. Everything worked as it should do but I was glad we’d had a practice last week. It would have been Mom’s 89th birthday today.

Once I was back at my desk it was a load of admin stuff. I entered abouth half-a-dozen competitions, surfed the jobs board (pitched for one), did some admin for Diane’s Gig List, and then I thought I’d do a new post for Monkey Dust’s next gig. If you remember, the real ‘next gig’ was cancelled with the promise of another gig in the future plus compensation. This meant that their actual next public gig was on 12 May.

I’d literally just shared the posters and was about to create an event when a message flashed up from the venue who cancelled the band last week: Were they able to jump in to a last-minute gig this coming Sunday? Well, I could see from the calendar that they all fill in remotely that the entire weekend was blocked out as holiday. So I quickly checked with the poet, as his was one of the holidays booked (it’s our wedding anniversary weekend this weekend and we usually take the whole weekend off), and when he said he was fine with it (due to the one the following week being cancelled), he checked with the others.

All three of them checked with their other halves and while one of them is actually away for the weekend, they all decided that they wanted to do it and the one who was away will just turn up when he gets there and play. i.e. he won’t have to help set up unless he’s home a lot earlier than he thinks he might be. (It’s a driving holiday not a flight, so it will depend on the traffic.) Our wedding anniversary is actually on Monday, so as we weren’t going away and as the gig the following week had been cancelled, I was okay with it as well.

So… Monkey Dust have a new gig this weekend, and the admin for that, which includes new posters as well as the FB event, took out another chunk of the day. We’ll also be celebrating the bass-player’s 60th birthday this weekend (hence his trip away) as well as the lead guitarist’s girlfriend’s birthday. She isn’t 60 yet, by a long way, but she and the bass-player do share the same birthday.

Phew!

I was just about to crack on with some other work when the probate people sent a massive document through that my sister wanted us both to read through. So I downloaded that, read it through, made some notes and replied to her. By then it was gone 6:30pm, so I retired to the living room, taking The Fool with me.

We have another busy morning today. The poet is taking one of his shoulders to see a physiotherapist first, and then the dog goes back to the vet. It looks as though his drugs (the dog’s, not the poet’s) took the best part of the week to start working, so I think we’re going to ask for medication for the next three months for him. Keep everything crossed that he continues to improve.

Sign up for my newsletter
If you would like to receive my newsletter, please follow this link or use the form below to sign up and receive your first free short story.

And don’t forget, you can unsubscribe at any time.