Meanwhile, at work, I think the whole of the IT department are worrying away at the mysteries of why I can’t have access to the boss’s diary. We tried again this morning, and I now think it’s been referred to a higher power. Possibly God. Who, as we know, is unlikely to provide instantaneous answers to such matters. Sigh. All this is making it hugely difficult for me to get things into David’s schedule and rearrange appointments etc etc. If nothing happens by close-of-play, I shall have to invite him to meetings from my diary and hope he realises I’m not actually attending. Ah well.

I worked through lunch today as I had my follow-up appointment with the high-powered Consultant this afternoon. I have my list of questions in my hand, but I might not have to ask quite so much as I realised last night that my stitches have finally (after 3 weeks!) dissolved, hurrah. That’s a relief – I was starting to worry that I was fraying. I also think that my shoulder is slightly less numb than it has been, and there might even be signs of life in there. It’s certainly not back to normal, but maybe it’s on its way? Heck, there’s always hope. UPDATE: she’s pleased with how I’m doing, hurrah, though there are apparently still a couple of small stitches in the tummy button scar which I can't see but they should go soon. However, she’s doubling my Metformin dose to prevent the Return of the Cyst (great film title there, I feel …), and giving me a standby of the HRT patches in case the mood swings set in again – as my last one of the current pack runs out today (though I’m upping my HRT gel dosage to compensate – are you keeping up with this at the back??...). She’s also going to write to the GP and suggest that it would be a good idea for him to take on responsibility for the Metformin and patches prescriptions, so I’ll see what he says about that when I have my appointment with him in mid-November. Onward and upward, but slowly, eh.

On the way home, I need to pick up a parcel, which I’m hoping will be my double order of thermal wear for the Norfolk holiday, but could well be a supply of greetings cards I asked for. Ah, the excitement is mounting in either case, you know. Hmm, perhaps I should get out more? Then again, I don’t want to frighten people. Not so soon in the academic year. UPDATE - both have arrived, hurrah, so I can (a) be warm, and (b) write cards. My winter is sorted then.

I’m even thinking about doing a bit of writing (only thinking, mind you!), but I don’t want to overtire myself – after all, It Takes Two and Autumnwatch is on and there’s always tomorrow … And, talking about writing, I’ve decided to withdraw from my one remaining workshop group on the Writewords site and take down the three pieces of work I still had on there. I am slowly but surely minimalising all my commitments, you know, and soon I fear I’ll have vanished entirely. I’ll keep up my blog entries there as, to be honest, that’s all I can cope with for now. It just seems like the right thing to do. The site is now so intensely focused on nothing but success (and only a particular brand of success at that, in my opinion) that it’s hard for anyone else to exist at all on it. A shame, as it used to be so good. Ah well – commercialism gets us all in the end, dammit , and quality’s a rare and fragile beast. On the other hand, I’m probably just being a clapped-out, bitter old writer – but hey tell me something I didn’t know!...

And, finally (as they say), if anyone’s asking or has even read this far (well done, you!), I’m very impressed that the BBC has seen fit to suspend Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand and not broadcast their programmes for the time being – seems eminently reasonable to me, but I didn’t think the BBC would have the guts to do it. Well done, them. I’m hoping they’ll put the repeats of Fawlty Towers on in their place – now that’s class. UPDATE: That said, is Brand going over the top by resigning?? A decent public apology and a good offering of flowers, a la Ross, would have been perfectly acceptable. Indeed, Sachsgate rumbles on ... Still, at least it keeps our minds off the credit crunch.

Today’s nice things:

1. Parcels
2. Thinking about writing
3. TV.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website - happy to apologise in advance ...