Friday, 07 July 2023
I wake feeling good after an alcohol free day and a sound night’s sleep. Breakfast done and I pop to Tesco’s for petrol and some bits before driving down to St Lukes hospital for my x-ray. I was in a quandary over which cat food to get my little girl. The cat food I usually get her is nice, but she seems to be getting bored of it a bit, so I get her some Harringtons, because it claims to have more meat in, be made from all natural ingredients and because it’s on offer! It’s still expensive but she is worth it and I can only hope that she likes it.
On the way down to St Lukes, I’m desperately trying to work out the quickest route when I find myself at some red traffic lights and remember that if I turn left here I’m not far from where I want to park, away from the hospital so I don’t have to pay for parking! I park up at the side of Gt Horton park and sit in my car for five minutes before I go to the hospital. I find it interesting how many people glance over to see if anyone is in my car and then quickly look away when they see me. I do wonder if it’ll be safe to park my car at the side of the park and decide I will risk it and set off to the x-ray department.
It’s only a 5 minute walk to the x-ray department and when I go inside it is packed with people waiting for an x-ray. All the seats are taken, and people are standing everywhere. I join what I think is the queue and see a sign saying that one of the x-ray machines is broken and there’s a 2-3 hour wait. I decide that life is too short to be waiting that long and I’ve got too much to do, so I turn round and leave without having an x-ray. On the way back to my car I go past Little Horton Hall and the old cottages that formed Little Horton hundreds of years ago. They look amazing, full of charm and character and in another area they would be worth much, much more. They have long gardens and because it’s a warm day some of the doors are open. I wonder who lives in them and what lives they lead, living, as it were, in a community within a community, Little Horton being a much larger area than it was back then, with St Lukes and so much more housing surrounding the original hamlet. It’s fascinating to see this piece of history before my eyes and I hope it’s still there in hundreds of years to come.
My car is still there when I get back to it and I go the same route home that I came, mainly to avoid all the roadworks which seem to have sprung up everywhere. Home and my little girl is waiting for me as she’s hungry and wants feeding. I give her some Harringtons and she eats it all as if she’s never been fed before and wants more! After eating 2 sachets she can barely move and wants to go outside. I pick her up and she goes outside to sleep off all the food she has just eaten. I’ve made a good choice getting her Harringtons. She absolutely loves it, and she is one very happy little cat.
I have something to eat and then sit down to do some uni work. I’m still unsure of what I’m supposed to be doing, especially as I’ve pretty much ‘winged it’ through my degree and Masters, but I can’t ‘wing’ my PhD. I’ve a book I’ve never opened, Doing a Systematic Review – A Students Guide by Boland, Cherry, and Dickson. I read the first chapter and it makes sense, and the second chapter does too, answering so many questions I had about what I’m supposed to be doing and most importantly for me, showing me how to structure my systematic review, which is something I’ve been looking for. I feel so much better now, so much calmer. I feel that I can implement what I have read into my own work and then I can see where I am and what I need to do for my systematic review. Feeling so much better about my research I head to the club for some beers and some dominoes.
At the club the usual suspects are in and soon we are playing dominoes and having a laugh. The beer is flowing, a but too well, but I haven’t been in for a while, so I’m not too bothered. We win some, lose some and soon my head is aching from all the beers and it’s time for me to go home and get to bed. I have a chat with Dave who’s 78 and tells me he’s struggling to keep up with all the drinking. I’ve had 6 pints and Dave’s had 9! No wonder he’s struggling to cope.
I get home and give my little girl some more of her new, favourite food before having something to eat myself and heading to bed tired but happy.
The Autistic FellRunner 