Flying By
29 October

This month has flown by. All of a sudden the hour has changed and we're into the dark, dark, evenings.

Lots of themes with variations have run through have run through the month.

I'm still job hunting. I've had one interview which went reasonably well considering it's the first one I've had. And I've had another day's work at the Catholic Junior school in Liverpool.

On the health front, I've had my yearly flu jab and I've been to ENT about my croaky voice and tinnitus. They put a camera up my nose and had a look at my vocal chords. No nodules and everything working OK. They also tested my hearing which for someone of my age appears to be pretty good.

Nutkin however has been faring less well and has been to the vets with what turned out to be pancreatitis and which, had it not been tackled, would have led to his demise. We are grateful that we caught it early and that we had a good pet health insurance.

Ross is also in the wars again. He has a continuing pain just under his rib cage at approximately the point where his liver is. He's been to the doctor's a couple of times and tests have been arranged but the current response is to continue upping his pain medication. Not good.

There have been a couple of musical treats. Michal Nesterowicz conducted an all Dvorak programme with the Phil including the Carnival Overture, Symphony No7 and the Cello Concerto with Mario Brunello as soloist. It was all stirring stuff more than adequately presented. Unfortunately, I simply wasn't in the mood and so didn't get the best out of the evening.

Luckily, I was in a far better frame of mind for the Paul Lewis Schubert recital the following week. It was a monumental affair encompassing the last three piano sonatas that Schubert wrote. By the end of the evening, my withers were wrung out. It was an astonishing feat of pianism and I am just so glad I started on this journey nearly two years ago.

There have been some family gatherings as well. Linda and Mary came up to visit mum. Linda, of course, wanted to see how dad was getting on at the nursing home. She had one very bad visit when he became spiteful and spat at her and then one absolutely charming visit when he stroked her hand. Mary, sensibly was not present for either.

The two of them came over to see me. They arrived at the waterfront courtesy of the Mersey ferries.

From there, we went to the Museum of Liverpool and had a good look round.

Mary was particularly taken with the rolling stock from the old Overhead Railway.

That was a good day in among all the hustle and bustle.

Then, at the end of the month, we went over to Nottingham and back in a day for a gathering of Ross's family to celebrate his grandad's birthday. For someone who was diagnosed with inoperable colon cancer earlier this year, he is still looking remarkably spry.

And it was lovely to see him with all of his great-grandchildren around him. What no-one was saying, of course, was that this was something like a wake and that we didn't expect to see each other all again until it was time for the funeral.

I just wonder how soon both the funerals in my life will come upon us.