Hot chocolate

My pal Dermot from the music group (we should have been in Berlin with him rather than having me stuck in hospital) had phoned late last week and said he would call to see me some time this week. True to his word he phoned again this morning to say he'd be here around noon and that another member of the music group would be joining us for lunch.

His original idea was to go to Cavistons here in Glasthule, but I dissuaded him from that idea, pointing out how small the place is, and how much its clientele tends towards blue-rinse ladies who lunch. We agreed that I would think about an alternative which would also satisfy the requirement to be easily accessible for me in my current condition of limited mobility. When Dermot got here I was ready to suggest the GastroPub Company in Dún Laoghaire, but he and Bernard had forestalled me by arranging for Ben to go to Greystones on his scooter and meet us there with a view to lunch at Caviston's branch there.

Dermot did the driving, we got to Greystones with super efficiency ... and found that Cavistons do not open on Mondays. Fortunately there's a vegetable shop cum café right next door, and that's where we finished p having a delicious lunch. The place is The Happy Pear, and I'd recommend it to anyone who's ever in this neck of the woods. My generous helping of Potato and Spinach soup was delicious, as was the selection of bread served with it. Rather than indulge in a main course we all decided to skip straight to dessert. Once again, I couldn't fault what I had: a slice of lemon, lime and poppyseed cake with a magnificent cup of hot chocolate (there was a choice of dark, white or milk chocolate: I had dark).

It was a lovely interlude, we had a grand old chat, and I managed the few steps from the car to the café without too much bother and got some much-needed extra leg-stretching exercise going in and out to make my eating selections. Thanks, guys, for a really enjoyable time, and for your thoughtfulness in meeting up.

While en route home Carl got a call from his mum, telling him to call in to pick up some soup and other food which she'd prepared for us. We had a fab supper of Courgette and Almond soup, followed by sausages which Carl had got in the Beaumont Vegetable Drive-in before picking me up on Saturday. The perfect accompaniment to the sausages was a lovely mix of bamboo shoots with onion and sweetcorn -- certainly, the food in this convalescent home is the best I've experienced since I became hospitalised: I could get used to this!

As an added bonus to what was a hugely enjoyable day, something almost miraculous occurred while I was resting during the afternoon. When I got out of bed it was to find that the swelling which has been such a problem with my lower leg where the vein was removed had suddenly much improved. Wiggling my toes now provided much better results, and what has been a sad-looking length of unattractive blobiness was now quite suddenly much more like a leg again. This has put me in tip-top form. A bit of dry weather tomorrow and I'll be nipping out a few times during the day to do some walking along Carl's street. Life is good!

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It's taken a while to get my act together and do some back-blipping, but I've done that now for the weekend move to Carl's place and my new convalescent facility. Check out Bedside bouquet (Saturday) and Orchids and Tennis (Sunday).