I didn’t get up to a great deal today. In fact I spent most of it playing Deus Ex as I’ve finally managed to get into it.

It seems the best technique to play the game is to save very regulary as either you’ll die quite soon or the game will crash. Either way it’s a pain when you’ve forgotten to save for a while have to redo tricky bits.

No more news on the Uncle Bob front other than he’s eating again.

After a relaxed morning and a mixed grill lunch the weather was still nice so it was decided to go out. I got out the map and looked for a nice place to visit on a cool but sunny afternoon.

I decided upon Trengwainton Gardens, near Penzance, so we trundled off to there. Seeing that we are all National Trust members we got in for free.

For such an early time of the year there was a surprising amount of colour on show from the plants. Maybe this was due to the majority of the plants coming from Australasia. Out of the wind it was reasonably warm and it made a pleasant afternoon’s outing in the sunshine.

By comparison tonight’s been quite dull with nothing useful on the telly. I did manage to do a little maintenance at work, however, whilst tidying up my mailbox, mostly just making sure the spam filters keep working.

It seems that my uncle Bob’s operation went well. They removed his leg half way down his calf. He survived the operation itself, which was the biggest worry, however, he’s not out of the woods yet. It currently looks like he has renal problems and will be looked at by a specialist soon.

As for my day, as the weather wasn’t too brilliant, I spent most of it watching my DVDs of the first season of Babylon 5. Unfortunately, my parents’ DVD player crashed every time I tried to play the commentry special feature for “Signs and Portents.”

I did pick up the photos from Boots this morning. As it turns out, the first half of the film contained pictures from Cropredy ’02 and the last half from a visit to a National Trust house last year when I tried to use up all the film. Unfortunately, not only did this seem to be poor film stock which was probably way out of date but also Boots’ printers are low resolution. The upshot of this was that many of the prints have purple bands along the top and bottom edges and every one of the pictures have a rather obvious speckled, multicolour grain to them.

Well, the news on the Bob front is a little more hopeful. Apparently the septicimia has stayed in the leg and has not spread to the rest of his body. He still will need to go into the operating theatre to have that leg removed. However, this is the second problem. Bob’s heart and lungs aren’t in great shape so the operation is highly risky.

Anyway, other events today include a walk on some cliffs, taking some pictures and watching some seals being lazy on a beach.

At about 10:45am the phone rang whilst my parents were out shopping at Asda. It was one of my relations who lives up in Derbyshire, close to where my nan and uncle Bob live.

She asked me to pass on the information that Bob was gravely ill in hospital awaiting a probable leg amputation due to gang-green.

As the day progressed, more information came forward from various sources including a staff nurse at the hospital. It seems that Bob’s too ill to be operated upon and has septisemia. Not only this but the doctors have given him only 24-48 hours to live.

My nan is in the advanced stages if senility and has become unmanagable and is in no state to keep herself and hence has been taken into care.

It’s not yet determined what will happen in the next few days. It’s highly likely that myself and my parents will have to first travel up to my place and then hence up to Derbyshire.

Unfortunately, these events aren’t wholey a surprise. Bob has been going down hill healthwise for some years. He’s got diabeties which has caused many complications. Also, he’s not been exercising to help with his circulation problems but instead just sitting in a chair watching telly.

It’s sad but I don’t know why I don’t feel worse. I just feel like it’s one of those things and it’s a set of events which require coping with. I also have a feeling of slight annoyance that Bob could have done things in the past to help prevent such a fate as that he finds himself at the moment.

Well, it’s now just gone 11pm and there’s been no further word since I wrote the previous part of this entry mid-afternoon. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

I awoke at about 8am and then snoozed ’til 9ish, at which point I turned on the radio and listened to Broadcasting House. This week’s programme was the best it’s been for some weeks.

After a long discussion about how the railways should be reorganised to get them working with my dad, I finally got up just after 11am.

After lunch I helped my dad with a printer problem he was having and then just pootled about.

I needed a restful day after the last couple of day’s activities.

Got up at 8:30am giving myself an extra hour to try to compensate for both the late night last night and the sleep disturbing effects of the over full stomach.

Managed to get on my way down to Cornwall by 11am. The roads were pretty busy today. I image it was due to people having the same idea as I had of having the week before Easter off on holiday.

The minor cough I’ve had since the end of the cold a week ago last Wednesday has continued. Last night’s drive down to Godalming and back seemed to make it worse and today’s drive has made it worse still. Not only this but I seem to be getting a sore throat. Maybe the cold is coming back again or I’ve caught yet another one.

Anyway, it’s now ten past 11 and I’m feeling ready to drop, so I’m off to bed.

Happy birthday _paddington_!