The call comes this afternoon!  Coventry Hospital has a spare slot and can do the exploratory operation on Thursday. I have a meeting with the surgeon tomorrow afternoon. The news unsettles me in a strange way. I almost guessed that this would happen. I realise how far away next week appeared – it is beyond next weekend. But now it is going to happen this week. So I was right to get my washing done after all! I sit still for a while taking in the news. Then I am able to put it aside and go back to oiling my bicycle chain!!

I have enjoyed the Lauttern Compagney CD so much that I order another – this one including the work of minimalist Philip Glass. It includes a few of his solo saxophone pieces which I have time for. Oh, and I order A Small Town in Germany by Le Carre.

Later in the day I phone my brother. We briefly discuss the operation and then move on to politics. That’s me and me bruv  we can leave some things unsaid. Trust me to go into hospital during one of the most interesting political times of my life! I send some emails cancelling plans and offering apologies for the rest of the week. Word spreads further. ‘Cancer’! The word must evoke the same response from people as ‘demons’ or ‘possession’ did in earlier centuries.

More late evening snoring from Brandi the Cat. I am sure that sleeping upside down on her head cannot be good for her!! Getting her to move, however, may well result in unacceptable finger loss and the need for Coventry A&E more than their other services.

I take the last of the course of antibiotics.