Didn't get to sleep till about 4 this morning, a combination of insistent pain and the more positive insomnia of a brain that didn't want to disconnect from the music I was listening to and the pictures I was looking at. Consequently getting up at a reasonable hour was difficult and I've been sluggish all day but I succeeded in rising with the alarm even as I cursed it. All part of my ongoing campaign to bring more discipline to my routine.

I went out about half past nine to visit Diana and her colleagues picketing outside Abingdon Hospital as part of today's strike action by NHS staff. It was freezing cold and they didn't have a brazier burning today but morale seemed pretty high nonetheless. It takes a helluva lot to push nurses, midwives etc. into industrial action but, as the sign says, enough is enough. Let's hope they manage to make a difference, their cause is just their adversaries despicable.