Chilly.

The plasterers turned up!

The plasterers arrived early this morning, worked hard and by the end of the day had skimmed both rooms and done the first steps on the French doors' reveal. There they're also working on correcting the sloping top edge, something that had become noticeable once the doors were in. Right now it feels even more like a building site in here with the floor dust sheets just pushed to the side and the furniture moved out of the way and covered with even more dust sheets. The bleakness of the sitting room is increased by the fact that I took down the lights from the window, dismantled the tree and put away the cheery cards. I just have to keep reminding myself that it should only be a matter of days until I can paint the reveal around the French doors and then remove all the dust sheets and put the light grey throws on the sofa and chair. That will go a long way to making the sitting room look better.

This morning I drove down to the surgery. Normally I would have walked but it was a good opportunity to test the car's starting ability and I'm pleased to report that it started every time. No more worries on that score. The doctor read through all my hospital cardiology reports and assured me there's nothing to worry about though the nightly being woken up soon after falling asleep is a real nuisance especially as then I don't get to sleep for hours. The best part of the visit was getting an injection to see if that helps with my rib pain. On the way back I called in at the pharmacy to collect our prescriptions and then the shop for some milk, potatoes and cherry tomatoes. We're still working our way through all the Christmas goodies so tonight I'm going to have baked camembert on oat cakes (cultural fusion food of my own devising) with red peppers. 

This little house sparrow was happy enough with the fat ball in the feeder which I've hung outside the kitchen window. I don't fill the feeder up because heavy rain washes the fat balls out onto the bush below. While I was waiting (a very long time) in the cold lobby outside the surgery I kept hearing a cockerel crowing. I'm not sure if it was in somebody's back garden or from the zoo which is quite close. There's a big sign on the door telling you to ring the bell once which is what I did and then waited about 10 minutes. I got so cold that my forehead temperature registered 31.5C/88.7F on the hand held scanner when they did finally let me in. Maybe this is a cunning plan to kill off any surface covid before being allowed into the waiting room.