IN BRIEF

Sunday 14th October

Graham followed his new routine of leaving at 6.00am to get to Birmingham airport for 7.00am to fly to Newarke USA, arriving around 5.00pm our time.

Monday 15th October

Normal day. Jewellery class went well and everyone very supportive about Thursday. All the students finished the netting on bottles and went away with a Christmas bauble to try the same technique on at home.
Two piano lessons. Changed 'attack' with my Grade 5. Have abandoned the set pieces for the next month, we both need a rest from them. Found instead the Primo part of Faure's Berceuse from The Dolly Suite to help with recognition of high notes.

My prediction came true. Person who won the Derby Evening Telegraph photographic competition was the same girl I mentioned. She has now replaced the entry on her website from "not much of a prize" to "I won the photo competition"...

Tuesday 16th October

Busy 'catch up' morning. Off to Derby City Hospital for 12.30pm appointment for 'Pre-Operative Assessment'. Was bitterly disappointed with whole 'affair'. First had to walk miles to find the place; struggled to open the entrance door, called in to fill in forms that were on the whole irrelevant with a nurse who neither cared what she was doing nor took any notice of the fact that this was second time round for me. An ounce of 'nurse-worthy' caring would have gone a long way, perhaps she only worked in metric! Came away with two of the questions firmly embedded in my memory: "Do you bath or shower?" (Was that the same as asking 'Magnum or Cornetto'?) and : 'Do you have any pets?' (Was very close to asking if mice counted...)

Wednesday 17th October

To say I felt anxious today was a bit of an understatement. Graham home by quarter to nine, but spent most of the morning in bed asleep. We met Lucy in town and went to Nandos for lunch. Afterwards Graham went into work while Lucy escorted me around our new Westfield shopping centre. Have vowed never to go again... it's huge, impersonal and amorphous. You could be at any main shopping centre or trapped in your own worst nightmare - shops that have nothing you want to buy in them...
Came home and packed ready for tomorrow.