Freezing February

At last some kind of winter has descended on the North East - we've had a couple of small drops of snow, but the main issue this last week has been the reduction in temperatures, which have meant the ground has been frozen and is showing no signs of thawing yet. No cycling for me then - but we've had beautiful crisp, blue sky days. The most unusual - and very welcome - feature of this winter, however, has been the virtual lack of wind. Almost uncanny and slightly eerie at times.

We - that is, Jo primarily - have now fully recovered from the trauma of Jo's cataract operation 10 days ago, but the first 36 hours were difficult to say the least. Jo was alarmed by the shutter effect/flashing she experienced immediately after the op. They say the worst thing you can do with any medical symptoms is Google them because you'll soon find all the horrible things that could possibly have gone wrong. Well, of course, Jo did exactly that and quickly became convinced that she might have a detached retina and require another operation.

So, on Friday morning, Jo steeled herself to do the thing she hates doing - using the phone. Of course, you have to go through the horrible multitude of menus on the hospital phone system and, after doing all that, the final message was to go and see your local optician - which she did. That was the breakthrough - she got a full examination and the optician reassured her that the operation was a complete success and there was no question of a detached retina or any other problem for that matter. Breathe.

While at the optician, Jo ordered a new pair of glasses - light sensitive so she can use them as sunglasses when we're on holiday - and she has started to use them to watch TV too - although she doesn't really need to as her vision has improved so much now. What do we think of the new look?:

Jo got further re-assurance on Saturday night when we went round to Nigel Meany's 60th birthday party (yes, we still have friends as young as 60!) and she got talking to Ian Sharp who went through the same experience last year and is absolutely fine.

This week was fairly quiet early on, but, on Thursday, I travelled down to Dundee to meet up with a couple of my old school pals from the early 1960's:

I got back just in time to head to the Legion for our weekly live show on River Dee Radio. Then yesterday (Friday) was our first Headbang this year:

Next week, we're staying overnight in St. Andrews on Thursday and Barry, Helen and Dawn are coming over to join us for lunch. When we come back we'll need to start getting our packing properly organised for our big trip, which is only just over 2 weeks away now.