Home - Again

Thank you all very much for your comments on my last post. I read most of them in hospital on my phone and then on my laptop when I eventually got out of hospital. The procedure itself is uncomplicated and fairly routine (every 4 months for me) and simply involves replacing my uretic stent. My problem for many years was my propensity to become pre-sepsis or even get sepsis which is not a Good Thing. My body has given the medics (and me) a right royal scare on a number of occasions. 

All that seems to be a thing of the past and the medics have got my infections more or less under control.

Anyway I was called into hospital earlier than intended because of an unusual infection that they wanted to treat intravenously before the procedure. I was then in hospital longer than anticipated whilst they made sure that I was clear when I left their care.

I arrived home on Lewis last weekend. I had left the heating to come on for a few hours each day to keep the house from getting too cold.  The house was very warm. I never turn the heating off completely. It's an old house and the main walls are solid and very thick. I never let them get completely cold and they act like an integral storage heater.  Somehow, though, it felt warmer than usual for being empty in the very cold weather.  I discovered that when the boiler was switched off by the control unit, it stayed on.  After a number of days and investigations the problem was solved and I have working heating. However I'm also now awating a new control system which will, hopefully, be more efficient.

My pond had almost emptied leaving very little water for the two sizeable carp who had disappeared into the depth of the remaining water and pondweed. I switched off the stream pump and re-filled the pond and it has stayed full so I have yet to discover why it had almost emptied in six days. There will, doubtless, be a logical and probably simple explanation but I have yet to expend the time and energy on the matter.

I won't bore you with the other irritations but needless to say they have been time-consuming and made me even less enthusiastic about leaving the Island again in the winter.

So, nearly a week since I arrived home, life is returning to normal which is busy without the hassle.

We had the Last of the Summer Wine Club Christmas Lunch on Wednesday. There are fewer of us each year. However it was excellent company (as one would expect) and I think we were all very satisfied by the food and service. We occupy the whole of the original lounge bar in the County Hotel (which hasn't altered one bit since we used to meet there for a drink on a Friday evening half a century ago!). It still has the wood panelling and the coal fire.