I'll start with the good news - Luca has passed his driving test:
After failing his first test he thought he would have to wait until autumn to get another but he got a cancellation for July - and that's as much as his father knew until he came home with this bit of paper! What Luca hadn't told Gary was that he'd since got an even earlier cancellation. Look out world - Luca's out and about now. At least he'll be able to drive to/from work now.
Still on the Luca front, he finally got the all-clear to resume playing football after breaking metatarsals in both feet at different times in the last year - 3 in all, I think:
Not such good news for me, I'm afraid. This is now week 15 after my (2nd) medical pre-assessment, so I chased up my surgeon's Medical Secretary at Woodend Hospital and got the following response:
"I am just waiting for confirmation that Mr
Stevenson will have a robotic theatre list on 4.8.25. If this date does
not happen will be looking into a September date. I will keep you posted."
Hugely disappointing news after 2 years of waiting, including last year's withdrawal of their offer to send me to the Golden Jubilee in Clydebank - due to funding cuts. My response yesterday was to offer to pay the costs of travel and accommodation myself but I was told that, in any event, this was unlikely to be before the autumn anyway so I was advised to stick with Woodend.
Another potential issue is that my operation will be at least 5 months - possibly 6 - after March's pre-assessment, which will most likely invalidate those results, so it's likely I'll have to have another one - my 3rd! It's hugely frustrating.
4th August (if it happens then) is when Scott and Lucy are here - Barry and Helen too. Hopefully I get home the same day - if it's a morning operation. One night overnight if an afternoon operation.
One ever-so slight upside is that I had assumed I wouldn't be golfing at all this summer but the way it's now turned out I've managed to limp my way through my one game a week through April, May, June and now July too.
And my broken tooth implant isn't making any progress either. Nobody seems to be able to locate the type of implant so I'm stuck with half of it still in my gum - and a very toothy smile!
Meanwhile, at home, Jo's just finished yet another blanket:
Just what's needed in the middle of summer, eh? It's forecast to be 27 C (81 F) here tomorrow. Ross has encouraged Jo that her next knitting project should be a tea cosy, so she's now working out how best to do that.
Talking of Ross, he is still waiting for his provisional HGV licence to come through - that's over 3 weeks now. Until he gets that, he can't start his training.
It was our monthly golfers' beer afternoon on Tuesday and what a glorious day it was. Four of us went for a cycle beforehand and were more than ready to join the others and slake our thirst, come 4 pm:
It was definitely barbecue weather and we had jumbo prawns to start, followed by BBQ'd prime rib of beef in a bun - fabulous!
Everyone I know says when they retire that their first "project" will be to clear up/tidy up/organise the garage. Well, over a decade has passed and I finally got round to doing something about it this week - aided by Jo and Ross. We emptied out all the cupboards and nooks and crannies and threw out a bunch of stuff we didn't need or want - Jo and I took it to the tip this morning. The garage doesn't look any different but I now know where everything is at least. It's a long way from being as organised as Scott is in Grants Pass. Should I now get a tool tidy for the wall - or would that be too pretentious?
