Cold.

Much colder today, cold enough for a smattering of snow up on the mountains which had disappeared by the end of the day.

Peter rang the surgery this morning and had a phone consultation with his doctor within an hour. She  prescribed some new tablets which would be ready to collect from the pharmacy in a couple of hours and then she offered to ring again next Friday to see how Peter was getting on. A much better service than we ever got from our very busy GP's Health Centre in Devon.

Having got my visit to town out of the way yesterday I was looking forward to getting stuff done today. Weather permitting I planned to sort out the concrete troughs and tubs for the builders to bring up on to the terrace. As soon as I could I wrapped up well and emptied the compost and a few bulbs from two tubs. Once I'd done that it was time to go and collect Peter's medicine and go for a walk on the beach. When I got to the pharmacy I was surprised to be handed a bag with Peter's monthly stash of medicines. I hadn't brought a shopping bag with me but I managed to stuff the half dozen boxes into my jacket pocket. Luckily I had the sense to enquire if today's prescription was included and .... it wasn't. While the pharmacist sorted that out the assistant suddenly waved another bag at me. That contained all my tablets, another seven boxes to carry. Once Peter's new tablets were ready I headed back to the beach where I sat on the wall and managed to cram all the extra boxes into my other outer pocket and the inside pocket. I felt like a hamster filling its pouches with nuts and it made Peter laugh when I kept emptying boxes from all my pockets. In the end Peter decided not to take the new tablets. Being sensible he read the information leaflet first whereas I usually read it after I've taken the first dose, and amongst the side effects there were a whole range of mental effects from depression to hallucinations and sleep disruption which it said 'can affect 5 in 100 people who take it'  .......... and that they could happen straight away. I wondered at the use of 'can' rather than 'will' with a specific figure but Peter refused to risk it especially as his knee is already improving. At least I collected our monthly prescriptions.

(Ha! They've just said on PM (radio news program) that the hardest word to spell is manoeuvre so lacking spell-check I had a go at typing it in a new tab and got it right. Me with my difficulty with spelling.)

When I got home I measured the troughs and tubs and made some scale drawings to try out different arrangements of the troughs and tubs. It was at that point I decided it would be a shame to bring them up on to the terrace as although they match the walling in the front garden they would be out of place on our more modern terrace. What I really want are some plain plastic troughs but so far I haven't been able to find any that won't cost a fortune. I shall keep on searching and I'm sure something will turn up. Having failed to do much constructive today I did some tidying up in my study before tiredness took over.