At last! I'm on the list to have my spinal surgery, spinal decompression to be exact. I went up to Exeter to see the consultant at the RDE (Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital) and report on the effect of the nerve block that I'd had and his conclusion was that I should have the surgery I have been hoping for for the last 2 years. I nearly didn't when he prodded the painful point on the side of my hip and suggested it might simply be an inflammation. It would be nice if that was the case but my GP had already injected steroids into the hips several times to no avail. So in a few months times I'll have the operation which might possibly solve the problem.
Never one to travel to a new city without spending time exploring shops as well as historical sites I took the early train up. Exeter is a mixture of old and new and I was quite taken with these glass pebble seats. I would love to have them in my garden.
I planned to explore Exeter Cathedral but was somewhat taken aback to find out (after I'd gone through the one-way automatic doors), that it was £5 to go inside. So I made my way back out again.
I ate my lunch sitting on the steps of a statue on the Cathedral Green which seemed to be the meeting place for many students who are just starting their time at Exeter University. (We did look around Exeter University with Vytas and I don't remember any other big open spaces in the campus.) It was fun listening to all these hopeful youngsters though I didn't quite work out exactly what one student was investigating with eggs and jelly beans in class.
The day had started dark and stormy so I wore my jacket and left my sunglasses in the car at Barnstaple train station. Naturally by the time we got to Exeter it was sunny. I carried my coat in my bag for the whole day. It was very windy especially in the open spaces.
As part of my city exploration I went on a guided tour of the Underground Passages, a series of medieval 'tunnels' built in the 14th & 15th centuries to house the lead pipes bringing clean water from wells to the city. These were constructed by digging 6ft ditches which were lined with stone and then roofed (& earthed) over. The pipes were put in the passageways to make it easier and more economical to locate and repair leaks.
The original passages were 18" wide and about 5'7" high. In later years some of the passages were deepened to create more of a gradient so at times we had plenty of headroom while at others we were crouching and the hard hats were definitely a necessity. There was a point where we had the option to crawl through a 3ft section but most of us chose not to. The camera flash has lightened the picture but it was fairly gloomy in the passages and one lad had to leave almost immediately because it was too claustrophobic. The passages were so narrow for most of the time that you could not go past another person. During the war they were the only public air raid shelters and one raid lasted for 7 hours! We walked along under the High Street and could hear the traffic overhead. In the 1930s the public could visit by climbing down a manhole into the dark tunnels with oil lamps and no hard hats - ouch.
Never one to travel to a new city without spending time exploring shops as well as historical sites I took the early train up. Exeter is a mixture of old and new and I was quite taken with these glass pebble seats. I would love to have them in my garden.
I planned to explore Exeter Cathedral but was somewhat taken aback to find out (after I'd gone through the one-way automatic doors), that it was £5 to go inside. So I made my way back out again.
I ate my lunch sitting on the steps of a statue on the Cathedral Green which seemed to be the meeting place for many students who are just starting their time at Exeter University. (We did look around Exeter University with Vytas and I don't remember any other big open spaces in the campus.) It was fun listening to all these hopeful youngsters though I didn't quite work out exactly what one student was investigating with eggs and jelly beans in class.
The day had started dark and stormy so I wore my jacket and left my sunglasses in the car at Barnstaple train station. Naturally by the time we got to Exeter it was sunny. I carried my coat in my bag for the whole day. It was very windy especially in the open spaces.
As part of my city exploration I went on a guided tour of the Underground Passages, a series of medieval 'tunnels' built in the 14th & 15th centuries to house the lead pipes bringing clean water from wells to the city. These were constructed by digging 6ft ditches which were lined with stone and then roofed (& earthed) over. The pipes were put in the passageways to make it easier and more economical to locate and repair leaks.
The original passages were 18" wide and about 5'7" high. In later years some of the passages were deepened to create more of a gradient so at times we had plenty of headroom while at others we were crouching and the hard hats were definitely a necessity. There was a point where we had the option to crawl through a 3ft section but most of us chose not to. The camera flash has lightened the picture but it was fairly gloomy in the passages and one lad had to leave almost immediately because it was too claustrophobic. The passages were so narrow for most of the time that you could not go past another person. During the war they were the only public air raid shelters and one raid lasted for 7 hours! We walked along under the High Street and could hear the traffic overhead. In the 1930s the public could visit by climbing down a manhole into the dark tunnels with oil lamps and no hard hats - ouch.
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