under another sun

Up early and had breakfast with Lorraine, then spent the day tying up the laces of the year, billing the Marlborough, paying Jessica our tech and so on. Not to mention a bit of Christmassy stuff and working on the Centaur a bit. Then off to London to see Mum and Mas. I'm listening to Gogol's Dead Souls at the moment, which I started to read about thirty years ago. I shouldn't have waited so long. A really funny book. Must re-read his short stories too. Met Mum in the cafe in Bart's hospital, and when it was time we drifted up to see Mason. He was released from Intensive Care this morning, and now is on another ward. He was much better than when I last saw him, and mentally much more like his old self, and asking how the play went and so on. He has bruises all over, with their constant difficultly in finding a vein. He had a cannula put into his groin, which was painful, and then had to be replaced. However, now he a pacemaker and a triple bypass he has the full set....

Best news of the day is that Sam and Jade have now officially announced their engagement. Lorraine and I are really chuffed about this, and Beth is too. Sam and Jade are coming for Christmas, so it will be a double celebration. In other news, an overdue billing session this morning, and I finally got my invoices up to date. Then set off to Farringdon to meet Mum at Barts. Mason now out of intensive care, and in a room of his own, close to the nursing station. He is still very tired, and falling asleep mid-sentence and then waking up with a disoriented start. Mum and I sat with him for a couple of hours, and then left. Had a one fast drink in the Butchers Hook and Cleaver, posh Pie and Ale pub, and then we walked to Farringdon. Mum bearing up well with the travelling and visiting, though I am urging her to take a day off. A wearyingly slow train home, but Lorraine picked me up at a little before seven, as she had worked late, and we went home, and then walked down to a very busy Sha...

New kitchen stools delivered this morning, and I did a few scraps of work. Up to London today, and I met Mum at Bart's hospital where we spent the day with Mason in intensive care ward. He is not making much progress, and not in a particularly good way. He is, however, receiving absolutely outstanding care. I am really impressed with the staff. They are friendly and professional and communicative. A long afternoon, watching Mason's screen full of various traces, and numbers which you find yourself looking at all the time. He has a lot of swelling of his limbs. He is not able to talk much, and is in and out of an uncomfortable looking sleep. He is hooked up to an external pacemaker which is steadying his heart rhythm, which they are gradually turning down to see if his heart will pick up the slack. We went off for cups of tea in a little cafe, and had a piece of chocolate and honeycomb diabetes on a plate. The square outside has a few autumnal trees, and twice we saw people fe...