Nick calls me. How terrific to hear his voice. Nick is a life-affirming kind of guy.  No matter how bas life is treating you, it feels better after speaking with Nick. Even if life is not materially better than before, it feels that it is so….so it is!  We talk of many things including interesting points of similarity between my blog-writing and his techniques of writing part of his PhD. He asks if I had considered composing.  I had dismissed it up to now. But……..hmmmmmm!

In the afternoon I tidy up the patio and outside paths of weeds. I had applied some weedkiller but in all honesty most of the weeds have frazzled to death in the heat anyway.  A job that would have taken me about an hour now takes me around 4 hours as I stop to shelter from the sun and heat for a while.

I have an interesting thought. Maybe in the future cancer understanding will be so advanced that it will be just managed as a part of life, just like puberty or the menopause. People might say ‘I’m going through my cancer phase at the moment’ and just get an injection every fortnight until it passes!

A more prosaic thought.  How long do I leave it until I start chasing the date and time for my new scan appointment?

I continue with the Children of the Stones episodes. What a little treat to look forward to at the end of the day.

My peculiar obsession with the British and German action during the Battle of Britain endures. Having finished reading The Hardest Day I order another called the Narrow Margin (which provided the factual basis for the 1969 film The Battle of Britain – which I may also get). At the same time I order Handel Goes Wild, a collection of improvisations on Handel tunes by Christina Pluhar’s L’Arpeggiata together with one of my absolute favourite clarinettists Gianluigi Trovesi. Some people hated it – so I bought it!! Reading about Spitfires has not sent me totally Gammon at least. Phew!