Blackfoot...

I have to say that Anne is a star.

Although there's nothing really wrong with me - i.e. I'm not "ill", I am immobile - ok I can hobble around on crutches and slide down the stairs and crawl back up them - I can't carry anything around. So I need Anne to do most things for me....

I should be wearing a T Shirt with "Thanks Anne!!" emblazoned on it as those two words are the ones I say most at the moment...

Of course, come January, when I can walk again, I believe Anne will be spending a lot of time lying on the settee while I will be at her beck and call - which is only fair...

...and Christmas is cancelled too now as I can't get out to do any shopping - I might be able to find a few things on the internet though...

Today I went through around thirty CDs which have been lying in a pile for a while.....

They were unlabeled but now I have labeled them and they now form a pile of labeled CDs...

I did more work on the Sclater project and produced a mix which I hope will be acceptable...still needs some tweaking though...

In the evening when Anne came home, we had dinner and were settling in to the usual evening of TV watching (her) and jukebox listening (me) when I pointed out that my toes seemed to have become dirty.....

On closer inspection they were, in fact, turning black....

Consulting the notes from the fracture clinic, we found that they stated that if toes become discoloured or swell up we should "go immediately to A&E" - so we did...

Arrived at 7:35.

By 10 pm I was yet to be looked at by anyone...

As my foot was going black, pins and needles were taking hold on my leg and the cast seemed to be too tight, I was a bit concerned....

Finally a nurse looked at my foot - but only because I was annoying the staff by hobbling around next to their work station...

She asked a passing doctor if he had "10 seconds" to spare to look at the situation...

Five minutes later we were heading home having been told this was just a natural reaction but I need to spend less time sitting at the computer and more with my foot raised above the level of my heart apparently....

Once again the staffing levels at A&E were alarmingly sparse - people were having to wait up to five hours to be seen. I was pretty sure what was happening to me re my black foot was probably ok but I didn't want to wait 5 hours to find out - so I made a nuisance of myself and was seen and dealt with in less than three minutes...

So, what they probably need, is someone with a bit more medical knowledge meeting the people coming in to A&R and prioritising them according to

(a) the time taken to get rid of malingerers like me and
(b) the need to be seen right away - e.g. blood pouring from a head wound...

Otherwise they might as well just issue everyone with a numbered ticket as if we were in a queue at a chinese takeaway...because, basically, that's what they're doing anyway...

Home to a "live" episode of "Law & Order" and then to bed...