Needled

Friday was my latest blood test - postponed from early morning to late morning.  Captain B chauffered me, very kindly, as it can be hard to find a parking space later in the day. It's especially hard to find the sort of space I need for my little red KAA - the space you could park a double-decker bus in.

How routine an injection is these days, yet I can remember the horror of my very first inoculation, at school, in the 1950s, to this day.  We queued up, so I could see the nurse actually sticking a needle in the arms of the pupils ahead of me.  I could not believe it was happening. It looked like a brutal assault. I must have looked so white and shaken when my turn came that I even got a sympathetic word from the nurse before she stabbed me. Children were expected to be stoical back then, and treated like little criminals if they were not.

Yet now I inject myself fortnightly - for medical purposes - and it was until recently quite a painful business leaving me having to mop up the blood afterwards.  It is a lot less painful since the medicine changed, for which I am very grateful.  And I am constantly having blood tests and vaccinations.

I suppose this is one of the many advantages of growing older - needles no longer hold the same terror.  So I have chosen a photo of nature's needles to head this blog, in the form of a Needle Sea Urchin, yet another wonder from our Grand Creator, Jehovah.  It is from Captain Butterfly's photo gallery, of course.

I got back to the Hall last night, Captain B acting as chauffeur once again.  He walked me up to the Hall, and picked me up from inside.  A friend has brought me a lovely bracelet from her recent holiday in Italy.  And the brother I sat next to had just been through a cataract operation, even though he is young. Apparently his eye was damaged in an accident, which caused the problem. He was getting used to a dazzling new world, and one without glasses.

We - the Captain and me - compete at the Ordles every morning - Wordle, Quordle and Octordle.  I say "competing", but I am trying for a draw, and he wants to win.  One could almost think there was a difference between men and women... except that probably counts as a Thoughtcrime nowadays.  I guess I have to note that he often does win.