Not pottering

I was down in London last weekend, babysitting Littlest Granddaughter while Daughter 2 and Son-in-Law 2 were at a wedding. We played hide-and-seek. Can you possibly guess where she is, in this photo?? 

We read lots of stories. 

It rained, really quite hard, so that we couldn't go out. When I was a mum, I was famous for dragging my three out for Wet Walks. But I don't feel that I can exert so much authority over grandchildren and anyway, it was really very wet. But the day passed pretty well anyway. 

On Sunday the sun shone, so Daughter 2 got some plants planted. When they bought the house, the back garden was all grass, but she's gradually filling it with flowers. The soil is very solid London clay, so hard work to do anything with. 

Meanwhile the Edinburgh 2 are down in Devon with their cousins on their dad's side, which is lovely. 

About fourteen months ago, I got seen by a consultant who said that I needed a hip replacement operation, but the NHS has big backlogs so I was expecting to wait several years. However, to my surprise, I was recently summoned to a hospital in the west of Scotland and so went there today. I travelled by train, which was easy enough, though I did get up at 5.30am to do so - I was worried that the later train might be cancelled. I was in fact far too early, but that's better than being far too late. I saw a different consultant, a nurse, a nurse practitioner, a pharmacist and an occupational therapist, and they were all very nice, and it turns out that I should get the operation within 3-6 months. 

It seemed a good idea to get the op when it wasn't for several years. Now I'm thinking - hmm! oooh! - that's not very long. 

Still, it would have cost about £16-£18,000 to get it done sooner, privately, and this will be free. So - good old NHS. And I'm just not going to think about it until I have to.